SNL’s Moo Deng Chappell Roan sketch is going viral for the wrong reasons

Saturday Night Live is back and that means people are woefully misunderstanding sketches again. This time, it happened with a Weekend Update bit between Colin Jost and Bowen Yang. When Moo Deng asked people to give her space and Jost compared her to Chappell Roan, the internet didn’t like it.

During Weekend Update, Jost welcomed Moo Deng on stage. Played by Yang, the beloved baby hippo began using some of the same phrases that Roan used in her posts on social media about respecting her boundaries. Eventually, Jost points out that Yang’s Moo Deng is going through what Roan is going through, making a very clear point.

Those angry that Roan isn’t always ready for them to perform is eerily similar to how people expect zoo animals to always be at the ready for them. We demand things, expect celebrities (and Moo Deng) to do what we want them to do without realizing that they are just people. I thought the sketch was obvious but others didn’t understand it.

Yang, who has interviewed Roan in the past and even talked about his own mental health, was making this point by using another beloved icon of the moment to do so. The issue is that people want Roan to perform every day of her life and if she wasn’t happy to do so, people feel like they have the right to criticize that. That’s the point the sketch was making. Many online took it at face value and criticized Yang and Jost for mocking a woman’s mental health.

One person wrote “Two men mocking a woman’s mental health real nice” on X, decidedly not understanding the sketch. Another wrote “Oh Chappell is gonna have a field day with this.” These people, in my opinion, completely missed the point.

We really need to save the anger for when SNL deserve it

I am someone who loves Saturday Night Live. I have my entire life but I do understand that sometimes, they don’t always make the best decisions. It has then, in turn, left them open to criticism. Rightfully so, no show should be above that. However, some take things a little too far. Like with this sketch.

(To be fair, the minute someone calls it a “skit,” I know that they’re not coming at their criticism from an informed place.)

The show itself has done some distasteful jokes in the past. Moo Deng sharing her feelings on being watched every day of her life and making a point about how Chappell Roan feels is not one of those jokes. Everyone online is on high alert with Roan recently. She has taken to social media to clarify who she is voting for, for telling people to not ask for her picture when she’s out in her personal life, and to not call her by her real name.

That has meant that the minute you say her name, someone has an opinion. “She should be grateful” and “Leave her alone” are two sentences fired back and forth about her. The reality is that Roan said her peace on the situation and we should have left it there. But what Yang was doing was pointing out how we treat celebrities who become extremely popular quickly. We demand things of them like animals.

Maybe learn something from the sketch

I have seen many things in my years online that make me cringe. Actors like Glen Powell have said to just come up and ask for pictures with him after many videos surfaced online of him eating somewhere with a fan capturing the moment instead of just…talking to him. A fan went viral online recently for sitting next to Evan Peters at an airport and sharing it to her followers.

Roan was simply making it clear that she’s a person and when she’s performing, that’s her job. Otherwise, leave her alone. We treat celebrities like they owe us something every day of their lives and that is not true. They don’t owe us a thing outside of their work. People do treat celebrities like they are animals meant to perform for the general public and that’s the point that Yang was making.

Yang took to Instagram to clarify that he wasn’t mocking Roan too. “Oh geeez. ‘Mocks’???” Yang wrote. “If my personal stance and the piece aren’t absolutely clear in terms of supporting her then there it is I guess.”

So, the sketch went viral for all the wrong reasons. But if your jump reaction is to say that it is mocking Chappell Roan, you might want to pay closer attention.