Chappell Roan isn’t sweating the “Saturday Night Live” Moo Deng sketch that poked fun at her caustic relationship to fame. Sitting for Bowen Yang’s “Las Culturistas” podcast Wednesday, the Grammy-winning pop star complained that her fans overreacted to the “Weekend Update” bit and that it was “harmless” and funny.
“People don’t have to get mad on my behalf,” she said. “I’m fine, so what is there to be mad about?”
The sketch aired in September at the height of baby hippo Moo Deng’s viral fame — and the skyrocketing popularity of Roan as she grappled publicly with the expectations of fame and boundary-setting with fans.
“Reminder, women owe you nothing! When I’m in my enclosure tripping over stuff, biting my trainer’s knee, I am at work. That is the project,” Yang-as-Deng said, echoing real statements by Roan as she adjusted to being recognized on the street as a household name. “Do not yell my name or expect a photo just because I’m your para-social bestie, or because you appreciate my talent.”
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Roan’s fans were quick to dismiss the “SNL” sketch as bullying their favorite pop star, and were particularly harsh in their reaction to Yang, who had publicly been speaking her praises for months and even interviewed her for a magazine profile just a few weeks prior.
Roan said on Wednesday’s “Las Culturistas” that her fans had it wrong.
“I do have a thick skin around my art. It’s really hard to see something you see online and be like, ‘Oh, maybe that’s meant to be funny.’ But everyone’s like, ‘That’s serious! And that’s actually f–ked up!’ And it’s, like, maybe it’s just not — one — about you, or — two — serious,” Roan said.
That is when co-host Matt Rogers pivoted to the “SNL”-Moo Deng controversy.
“Well, can we talk about also like when people were dragging you for doing your Moo Deng thing?” he said.
“I wasn’t even mad!” Roan exclaimed. “I didn’t feel anything.”
The singer added that the point of “SNL” is to be funny and not taken too seriously.
“People don’t have to get mad on my behalf. I’m fine, so what is there to be mad about? Also, this is what happens, like, that is ‘SNL,’ it’s comedy,” she said. “Like, it is so lighthearted. It was, to me, harmless. And for people to, even if you were to push further, harmless! It’s like, it’s comedy. I don’t understand. I just don’t know the line anymore.”
“I think people just get worked up over someone that they are very — it’s like a lovebombing thing, or it’s like limerence,” Yang said. “It’s like, they’re obsessed with you, and so they will die if anything goes wrong.”
Roan lamented that she understands it’s hard to keep a humorous point of view lately with such things — “nothing’s funny, life is not funny right now” — but added that even if fans didn’t think the sketch was funny, they didn’t have to say anything about it.
“Even if you didn’t think the Moo Deng sketch was funny or anything, you don’t have to say anything. You can always not say something,” she said. “And you know what? People sticking up for me in that situation or not sticking up for me made me feel no different. So I didn’t feel protected and I didn’t feel unprotected, because I didn’t need it either way — because I was not offended.”
Listen to Roan’s full “Las Culturistas” podcast episode here.
