For nearly 50 years now, “Saturday Night Live” has been known to poke fun at whoever is in the news and their appearance in their impersonations. Whatever conjures a few chuckles from the audience is fair game, natural or embellished. It could be their eyes, their accent or, what got them into some trouble this week: their teeth.
But every now and again, an actor, politician or internet star fights back to defend themselves. The latest is “White Lotus” star Aimee Lou Wood, who slammed SNL on Sunday for how the show portrayed her in a skit that saw cast member Sarah Sherman mimicking her Mancunian accent while wearing false teeth.
Throughout the third season of “White Lotus,” Wood has fielded questions about her teeth, which unlike many celebrities of today, have gaps. It became a defining feature for the character, but Wood felt she spent too much time talking about her teeth than her actual work.
So for Wood, the joke didn’t land. The skit was “mean and unfunny,” Wood said in Instagram posts Sunday. She said it didn’t offer anything satirically meaningful, either.
“Such a shame cuz I had such a great time watching it a couple weeks ago,” the British actress said on Instagram of the show. “Yes, take the piss for sure — that’s what the show is about — but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way?”
The segment, titled “The White POTUS,” imagined a world in which people from President Donald Trump’s family and his administration met up with and embodied characters from the third season of “The White Lotus,” an HBO series centered on wealthy people who travel to a wellness resort.
Sherman, playing Wood’s character Chelsea, was seen sitting with the week’s host, Jon Hamm, who played Robert F. Kennedy Jr. riffing about health policy ideas (though he was dressed like Chelsea’s partner Rick, who is played by Walton Goggins on the show).
Hamm, as RFK Jr., asked Sherman’s character: “I’ve been having these insane ideas, like what if we took all the fluoride out of the drinking water? What would that do to people’s teeth?”
Cut to Sherman, who was seen with exaggerated teeth and her eyes wide open: “Fluoride? What’s that?” she asked, mocking Wood’s accent.
The “White Lotus” actress bit back Sunday. “I am not thin skinned,” Wood wrote on Instagram. “I actually love being taken the piss out of when it’s clever and in good spirits. But the joke was about fluoride. I have big gap teeth not bad teeth. I don’t mind caricature — I understand that’s what SNL is. But the rest of the skit was punching up and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on.”
Wood said she received an apology from SNL, though didn’t specify any details. Representatives for SNL declined to comment.
SNL, much in line with comedic satire, has a long history of ragging on celebrities for their physical attributes, unique accents and overall demeanor. Public figures — including Bill Clinton, Christopher Walken and even the Muppet Elmo — have often been targets of the show for decades.
Celebrities have fired back at SNL throughout the years for their portrayals, even if many consider it to be lighthearted comedy. One of the more notable critics has been Trump, who often spoke out against Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of him during his first administration.
In a similar light, Barbara Walters expressed concerns with how Gilda Radner mocked her speech in skits in the ’70s and ’80s, where Radner used the phrase “Baba Wawa” to reference Walters’s name.
“I hated it,” Walters said. “I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to be ‘Baba Wawa.’ I guess it’s good to be made fun of. I guess that means you’re slightly famous. I don’t talk that way, and I do pronounce my Rs. Why did my parents have to name me Bar-bar-a Wal-ters?”
Meghan McCain was critical of a 2019 skit that poked fun at all “The View” hosts and how confrontational they can be. McCain said the segment, in which Aidy Bryant portrayed her, was mostly kind to the other hosts, but seemed to dunk on McCain.
“I feel like I have a pretty healthy sense of humor,” McCain told Rolling Stone about the skit. “But I think if people knew what it has done to me mentally … the depression that has followed … just the dark spirals. I felt like for a while that I was just the laughingstock of the country.”
Sometimes, though, SNL has been in on the joke and acknowledged the criticisms. Like when Mark Wahlberg showed up for a segment to confront Andy Samberg for his impersonation, or when Jennifer Aniston went back and forth with Vanessa Bayer for her portrayal of Aniston as Rachel from “Friends.” The latter segment ended with both Aniston and Bayer pretending to be Rachel. (Meta!)
And SNL has apologized before. In 2018, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) was critical of how comedian Pete Davidson joked about the loss of his right eye in Afghanistan in 2012. “I think they should’ve rethought that joke a little bit — if you can even call it a joke,” Crenshaw told CNN days later.
To seemingly repair the damage, SNL had Crenshaw appear in the next episode, where Davidson apologized. Crenshaw then poked fun at the comedian.
“Americans can forgive one another,” Crenshaw said after ragging on Davidson. “We can remember what brings us together as a country and still see the good in each other.”
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