SINGAPORE: Comedy program Saturday Night Live (SNL) has been slammed for a recent skit about Tourette syndrome, with a leading charity group describing it as unacceptable.
The American late-night sketch comedy show recorded the skit last week, depicting several controversial celebrities, including Mel Gibson, J. K. Rowling, Armie Hammer and Bill Cosby, blaming their past problematic behaviour on Tourette’s. Notably, the sketch did not air on the official Saturday night show, but it was uploaded to social media shortly after.
“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,” said comedian Andrew Dismukes, who was dressed as the Braveheart star.
Tourette syndrome is a condition that causes people to make involuntary, sudden and repetitive sounds or movements known as tics, which can sometimes include swearing.
The sketch explicitly referenced an incident at the BAFTA Film Awards last week in which Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson involuntarily shouted the N-word while Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting on-stage.
Several black actors and a production designer said there should have been a more comprehensive apology at the time, and the slur was not initially edited out of the BBC’s broadcast. The BBC and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts have since apologised. Davidson also issued his own statement, emphasising that his tics are not a reflection of his personal beliefs.
Chair of the board of the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia Amanda Maysey denounced the SNL skit in a Facebook post addressed to the show, arguing it missed the mark.
“Joking that Tourette’s is an excuse for being racist, bigoted, even engaging in cannibalism is inherently not funny,” she said. “As a show with a large global following, you have a responsibility to ensure you are not deliberately causing harm to the 1/100 people on the planet who live with Tourette Syndrome or a Tic Disorder.”
Maysey went on to request that SNL publicly apologise for the harm and resulting shame it cast upon people with Tourette’s.
Elsewhere, Emma McNally, chief executive of the UK’s leading Tourette’s charity Tourette’s Action, said the Saturday Night Live skit was not acceptable.
“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 said in a statement posted to the charity website on Monday.
“Tourette’s is a complex neurological condition, of which there is no cure. It is not a joke. It is not a personality trait. It is not a source of entertainment. It is a condition that can be extremely debilitating, causing pain, isolation and huge amounts of discrimination.
“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.”
Members of the Tourette’s community had faced “horrific” trolling and harassment since the incident at the BAFTAs, McNally said. “People have been targeted with threats and humiliation simply for having a condition they did not choose. No one should ever be treated that way,” she said.
McNally ended the statement calling for both compassion and further education around Tourette syndrome.
NBCUniversal, SNL’s broadcaster, has been contacted for comment, as well as The Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia.
House of the Dragon star James Dreyfus also criticised the skit, calling the SNL comedians cringeworthy and unamusing.
“Good grief,” the British actor wrote on X. “Only goes to show that ‘regime comedians’ are as desperately unamusing, cringeworthy, pig-ignorant & prejudiced as they are over here.”
A Different Man star Adam Pearson described himself as a long-time lover of SNL, but said he was “truly disappointed” by the sketch.
“The media elites who often advocate for kindness and acceptance (a camp I very much put myself in) are failing to do so here. This isn’t satire, it’s punching down. SNL can be, should be and are better than this.”
British comedian Al Murray, largely known for his alter-ego “The Pub Landlord”, echoed Pearson’s sentiment and took to social media to call out the SNL sketch for not only “punching down”, but for simply being “upside down”.
Other users on X, including those who live with Tourette’s themselves, slammed the skit as insensitive and vowed to boycott SNL.
A comment by Deon Cole while he hosted the NAACP Image Awards has also been criticised. During the ceremony over the weekend – which celebrated outstanding performances by people of colour in film, television, music and literature – the actor and comedian referenced the BAFTA incident during a mock prayer.
“If there are any white men out here in the audience, Lord, with Tourette’s – I advise you to tell them they’d better read the room tonight, Lord … Whatever medicine they on, they better double up on it,” he said.
British media personality Piers Morgan said the comment was despicable.
“Hollywood continuing to mock John Davidson over his Tourette’s condition is one of the most despicable things I’ve witnessed in a long time,” Morgan wrote on X. “Shame on [Cole] and all those in the audience who laughed at his vile ‘jokes’.”