I’m a comedian – this is why Saturday Night Live’s jokes about Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth didn’t work | Athena Kugblenu

There's funny, there's mean, and there's mean and funny. But unfunny and mean will always die a death

In these partisan times, when all is binary and everyone must pick a side, I have chosen mine. Aimee Lou Wood, she of The White Lotus and thus now instantly recognisable worldwide, is absolutely right to call out Saturday Night Live, the legendary US entertainment and satire show, for making jokes about her teeth. The special relationship is under enough strain without having to lean into old stereotypes about British gnashers. I am still reeling from the Big Book of British Smiles gag in The Simpsons and I continue to floss every day because of it.

The SNL joke, if you are yet to see it, is part of a wider sketch making fun of the Trump administration. (Because if one thing has been proven to quell the march of the right, it's parody.) A White Lotus character is mashed up with someone adjacent to Robert F Kennedy, he mentions fluoride, and a Wood-esque character says What's that?"

Athena Kugblenu is a writer and comedian

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