Sunday could be a huge night for film in this country, with a number of Irish stars in the running to pick up major awards at the Oscars.
The Banshees of Inisherin and An Cáilín Cúin are both in contention to pick up gongs, while the likes of Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan, Kerry Condon, and Paul Mescal all nominated for individual honours.
It is a very exciting time for Irish cinema lovers, but they would not have been impressed with one incident in the buildup to the Hollywood show.
SNL criticised for Colin Farrell & Brendan Gleeson sketch
Saturday Night Live is an American institution, with the weekly show at the forefront of comedy in the States for decades. While it is no longer as popular as it once was, it still brings in a huge amount of viewers each week and has produced some of the biggest names in comedy in recent times.
However, anyone from this part of the world who tuned into last night's edition were unlikely to be impressed with one particular skit.
In the buildup to the Academy Awards, one of their sketches featured what was meant to be impressions of both Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.
While impressions can be hit and miss at the best of times, this wouldn't even fall into that category.
The two comedians on show just produced some unintelligible ramblings in what was presumably meant to be a drunk Irish accent, poking fun at the way both men speak. It was about as funny as you would imagine.
All the stars are out at the Oscars pic.twitter.com/BHKygkLJPW
— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) March 12, 2023
The cutting edge of comedy.
While it is easy to be offended in this day and age, it is difficult to imagine that they would pull off a similarly ridiculous caricature of other nationalities with such brazenness. That is without even mentioning doing this while impersonating an actor who has struggled with addiction issues in the past.
The whole thing went down as well as you'd expect it to.
Jesus Christ. I really do my best not to be over-sensitive about representations of Irishness. But the bit at 59’ here on Gleeson and Farrell? Fuck off SNL, you terrible, terrible, terrible show. https://t.co/EVvXNLc2Up
— 🥃Donald Clarke🎥 (@DonaldClarke63) March 12, 2023
at 59 seconds SNL somehow becomes a dig at Irish people, it fully just turns into a 1920s anti irish bit, like wtf how did this even air https://t.co/A1L1G64jK2
— tris 🏴 (@curtydwurty) March 12, 2023
sorry but i’m still so wound up over this, colin farrell has been so outspoken about his struggles with sobriety this is just in some of the poorest taste imaginable. americans never take a fucking day off https://t.co/FWS9uoDtWW
— shauna (@wednesdaysadums) March 12, 2023
The Irish and drinking tropes are so done but to make fun of an actor who has been very vocal about his road to/struggle with sobriety isn’t even funny. It’s gross. https://t.co/6zN3lYIOhu
— Ciara (@Ciarabelles) March 12, 2023
Whatever about whether this is offensive, or how offensive this is… it’s just so bad. It’s like the first draft of a comedy written by a 13 year old. https://t.co/d9dKk8sCba
— Mark Coughlan (@Mark_Coughlan) March 12, 2023
I really don’t know who SNL thinks it’s appealing to whenever it does these godawful ‘the irish are drunks and no one understands their accent’ bits. But you could say that about most SNL content tbh https://t.co/CpnTFkr0yW
— Emer Moreau (@emermoreau) March 12, 2023
The part on Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson at the one-minute mark is the worst thing I have ever seen, heard, and experienced in general. Why is everyone who tries to make jokes about Ireland such an unfunny little weirdo https://t.co/aZ4swORAzW
— Cian Maher (@cianmaher0) March 12, 2023
Well done SNL! You’ve managed to mock an entire nation, belittle someone who’s had a very public battle with alcohol, and you’ve managed to do it all without being even vaguely funny. https://t.co/dCrNeHIfcZ
— Alan Mehdizadeh (@alanmehdizadeh) March 12, 2023
Painfully unfunny. It’s ok to pretend extremely talented and intelligent men are unintelligible drunks because they’re Irish, right? Get a new bit https://t.co/AkIOGPCQdf
— 💫 (@eimsy) March 12, 2023
This is absolutely tripe and racist. Making jokes about our accents and are drinking habits is unfunny but doing it towards Colin Farrell who has been sober for nearly 20 years is cruel and wrong. @nbc @nbcsnl #SaturdayNightLive https://t.co/LGc16n0KYx
— Sorcha Morrissey (@sorcha1993) March 12, 2023
I mean, they (rightly) wouldn’t do this sort of skit about the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once speaking a foreign language in a funny way… https://t.co/ByhNZynIB5
— Oliver Farry (@ofarry) March 12, 2023
A sketch to be proud of alright.
Two of the nicest men in show business, Irish people were never going to stand for this slander Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.
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