Nearly 20 years after she departed from Saturday Night Live, Amy Poehler admits actors on the iconic sketch show have portrayed people they shouldn’t have portrayed.
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During the latest episode of the Good Hang podcast, Poehler spoke to fellow former cast member Will Forte about her problematic SNL characters.
“The part about getting older and being in comedy is you have to, like, figure out, ‘Oh it’s like everything has an expiration date,” she explained.
Poehler even pointed out that she noticed the inappropriate side of SNL during the show’s recent 50th anniversary celebration. “There was even on [SNL50], when they had that segment which was like, ‘Here’s all the ways we got things wrong,’ and they showed ways inappriate casting for people.”
“We all played people that we shouldn’t have played,” she continued. “I misappropriated, I appropriated… I didn’t know.”
Poehler then added why she decided to speak out about the inappropriate side of SNL. “The best thing you can do is make repairs, learn from your mistakes, do better. It’s all you can do.”
Poehler’s remarks came just one year after Dana Carvey apologized to Sharon Stone about one SNL sketch that went a bit too far. In the skit, Carvey and fellow cast members Kevin Nealon and Rob Schneider play airport security agents as they essentially harass Stone, making her disrobe during the security check.
“I want to apologize publicly for the security check sketch where I played an Indian man and we’re convincing Sharon, her character, whatever, to take her clothes off to go through the security thing,” Carvey said. “It’s so 1992. It’s from another era.”
Tom Hanks Previously Called Out SNL Audience for Laughing at “Unquestionably Poor Taste” Skits
Poehler was referring to the SNL50 sketch when Tom Hanks introduced an In Memoriam segment, which highlighted the many problematic jokes and sketches the show had aired.
Among the highlights was guest host Adrien Brody sporting dreadlocks while talking in a Jamaican accent, as well as Rob Schneider, who once appeared on the show with a Mexican stereotype outfit and Mexican accent.
“Even though these characters, accents, and… let’s just call them ‘ethnic wigs’ were unquestionably in poor taste, you laughed at them,” Hanks told the event’s audience. “So if anyone should be canceled, shouldn’t it be you, the audience? Something to think about.”