There was a very meta bit during Jon Hamm’s SNL monologue this week in which he spoke about the importance of high-profile cameos on the show — and was promptly upstaged by Kieran Culkin showing up beside him on stage. Culkin wasn’t the only unexpected cameo that night; Scarlett Johansson and former cast members Alex Moffat and Beck Bennett also turned up for The White Potus, a sketch that — you guessed it — mashed up the current season of The White Lotus with a series of political impressions.
Now, the sketch is in the spotlight for reasons other than politics. The White Lotus cast member Aimee Lou Wood called the portayal of her character in the sketch “mean and unfunny” in a post on Instagram stories. Sarah Sherman plays a version of Wood’s character Chelsea in the sketch, accompanied by prosthetic teeth. It’s not a flattering portrait of her, and it’s a tonal misstep in a sketch that otherwise occupied by satirizing world leaders.
In a subsequent post, Wood clarified her thoughts on the sketch. “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,” she wrote. “I don’t mind caricature — I understand that’s what SNL is. But the rest of the sketch was punching up and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on…”
Wood also clarified that someone from the show had apologized to her, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Wood also stressed that she wasn’t angry with Sherman. “[N]ot hating on her, hating on the concept,” she wrote.
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Hamm’s first time hosting in years had a number of memorable momentsIn this case, Wood is spot-on; it’s a jarring tonal misstep from the rest of the sketch. Unfortunately, as of this writing the sketch has 2.7 million views on YouTube — far more than all of the other sketches from the Hamm-hosted episode except for its cold open. That’s a shame, as both Hamm and Sherman made far better appearances in other skteches last night.
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