Posted in: Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: opinion, saturday night live, snl

SNL "Tourette's" Sketch Catching Heat, But Is It Just a Scapegoat?

SNL's Cut For Time sketch "Tourette’s" is catching heat, but is it being used as a scapegoat to deflect from issues raised by the BAFTAs?

The fallout from the BAFTA Awards incident, in which Tourette's campaigner John Davidson's tic saw him yelling the N-word while Sinners stars Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan were on stage presenting, has entered another week – and dragged NBC's Saturday Night Live into the middle of it. Over the past week, we've seen continued finger-pointing between the BBC and BAFTA over how the expletive could've made it onto air and streaming with a two-hour delay. Meanwhile, the incident has sparked a number of passionate discussions online, including the importance of understanding and respecting what comes with having a disability, what happens when one person's rights impede on the rights of others, who has the right to be offended, and others. That's where things stood heading into the weekend, with SNL finding itself knee-deep in the debate.

In a sketch that was cut for time and released after the Connor Storrie (Heated Rivalry)-hosted effort, we're shown a PSA for the National Workforce of Rethinking Disabilities (NWORD) – a fact we learn at the end of the sketch, but an important one to mention upfront since that means the entire sketch is done through the voice of NWORD. The premise of the sketch was that infamous pop culture figures who've done some really shitty things would be looking for any excuse to explain away their actions – in this case, they're looking to use Tourette's as their excuse. The sketch doesn't mock Tourette's or belittle those with it; it goes after folks like JK Rowling, Armie Hammer, Louis CK, and others, for being pretty lousy people, and it spotlights how they are hoping to capitalize on how little people know about Tourette's by using it to justify anything they can get away with:

Jill Zarin (The Real Housewives of New York star, played by Sarah Sherman): "I suffer from severe long-winded monologue-style Tourette's, a condition that affects nine out of 10 people on Long Island."

Mel Gibson (Andrew Dismukes): "I too suffer from Tourette's, which explains a lot of the things I've said or yelled through the years. Am I proud of what I said? No. But I am very proud for you to know that it was because of Tourette's. Unfortunately, I'm not alone."

Armie Hammer (Connor Storrie): "Hi cuties, I'm Armie Hammer, and not many people know this, but one of the most common side effects of Tourette's is cannibalism. You could be casually DMing with a girl, and suddenly, the Tourette's takes over, and you're typing stuff like, 'I'm literally going to eat you', and she's like, 'Lol, what?'"

JK Rowling (Ashley Padilla): "Tourette's isn't just blurting out an offensive word; it can be a years-long obsession with something like trans rights, and a deep anger that someone who is born with a wand in their pants would want that wand removed and replaced with a Horcrux. But now you know, it was all the Tourette's fault, and not a bet I made with Bill Belichick to see who could destroy their legacy faster."

In addition, we also had Kenan Thompson as Bill Cosby, Kam Patterson as Kanye West, James Austin Johnson as Louis CK, and even Michael Che as himself. Again, all presented as a PSA from the National Workforce of Rethinking Disabilities (NWORD). But based on some social media reactions and a statement released by Tourettes Action CEO Emma McNally, the released sketch was seen as an attack on the Tourette's community and not the individuals mocked in the fake PSA. "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," McNally wrote in a lengthy statement to Deadline Hollywood.

But is SNL being used as a scapegoat to shift the conversation from the more complex ones taking place on social media? On one hand, you have disability advocates supporting Davidson and pushing for a better understanding and acceptance of Tourette's and everything that comes with it. On the other hand, you have members and supporters of the Black community asking how others can expect them not to be offended by and react to the N-word being used against two distinguished Black men during an awards ceremony. Those debates have raised some very key questions that don't come with easy answers, as we've seen, but those are conversations that need to be had, no matter how uncomfortable they may be. SNL isn't the problem here; it's not the "big bad." It's doing what good satirical comedy is supposed to do.

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