Saturday Night Live is in hot water for its “Tourette’s” sketch.
The N-word incident at last weekend’s BAFTA Awards unsurprisingly caught the attention of the late-night comedy show, but its angle on the controversy has drawn fierce criticism from the charity organization Tourettes Action.
“This is not acceptable,” the organization’s CEO, Emma McNally, told Deadline on Monday in response to the sketch. “Mocking a disability is never acceptable. It would not be tolerated for any other condition, and it should not be tolerated by people with Tourette’s.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to SNL for comment.
BAFTA audience member and subject of the BAFTA award-winning biopic, I Speak, John Davidson, experienced involuntary verbal tics throughout the show, during which he shouted the N-word at Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo.
SNL brought out a parade of “canceled” celebrities to claim they have the same syndrome in a sketch that was cut for time and uploaded to YouTube.
“I’m Mel Gibson, and as I probably should have pointed out decades ago, I too suffer from Tourette’s, which explains a lot of the things I’ve said or yelled through the years,” with Andrew Dismukes delivering the lines dressed as Gibson. He added, “Fortunately, I’m not alone,” as several other disgraced figures made parody appearances.
“Now you know it was all the Tourette’s fault,” said Ashley Padilla, dressed as J.K. Rowling.
“Immediately after the BAFTAs, I talked to the doctors, the scientists, and the lawyers,” and they agreed that he suffered from Tourette’s, said Kenan Thompson, who was dressed as Bill Cosby. “So, say I tried to order the Diet Coke, simple right? Only sometimes it’ll come out like I need a double Whiskey with a bunch of GHBs in it,” he continued, referencing Cosby’s conviction for drugging and assaulting multiple women.
“Not a lot of people know this, but one of the most common side effects is cannibalism,” said SNL host and Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie, who was dressed as Armie Hammer, following the leaked text messages that showed the actor discussing eating a woman’s flesh. (Hammer has consistently denied that he eats people in real life.)
More celebs parodied in the sketch include Kanye West, former Real Housewives star Jill Zarin, and Louis C.K.
SNL’s own Michael Che threw his own hat in the ring, appearing in the mock confessional sketch as himself.
Also joining in on the backlash against SNL for comparing those celebrities’ public downfalls to Davidson’s Tourette’s episode last week is The Independent, which published the article, “Does Saturday Night Live think people with Tourette’s are making it up?” on Monday. The Hollywood Reporter titled its article about the sketch, “Does That ‘SNL’ Sketch Expose a U.S.-U.K. Gap on Tourette’s Education?”
The BAFTAs incident became the center of online discourse about the awards show after the BBC failed to edit out the slur, despite a request from Warner Bros. executives and despite nixing several others that could be heard from Davidson before the show aired on a two-hour tape delay. The footage was uploaded to the BBC’s iPlayer on Sunday night and remained until its removal the following Monday morning amid backlash.
The BBC issued a general apology to attendees on Monday, followed by a second that addressed Jordan and Lindo directly, hours later. Google joined the apology chorus after its system circulated the slur in a push notification without censoring it.
BAFTA organizers also drew criticism, with sources saying they were not properly warned about the language they might hear during the ceremony. Lindo later said he wished someone from the BAFTAs had “reached out to us” in the aftermath.
Davidson left the show early of his own volition after several outbursts, which also included “f--- you” and “shut the f--- up” at various points in the show. Davidson said in a statement after the incident that he was “deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to carry any meaning.”
Tourette’s Action CEO, McNally, added at the time, “These symptoms are neurological, not intentional, and they are something John—like many others with Tourette’s—lives with every single day.”
She blasted SNL on Monday in a scathing statement, “Videos and posts that deliberately misrepresent or sensationalise tics set us back years. A single video can undo the progress our community has spent years building toward greater awareness.”
McNally added, “These recent events have been painful for multiple communities, and I am not for one minute dismissing that hurt, but directing anger and ridicule to people with Tourette’s does nothing to heal that pain and does not move us forward.”
