“SNL” captured the tension of discussing powerful men accused of sexual misconduct and the ongoing #MeToo and #TIMESUP movements in a sketch in which nobody’s quite sure how to share their opinions without sounding terrible.
Host Will Ferrell is joined in the sketch by Heidi Gardner, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kenan Thompson and Beck Bennett as a group of friends out for a fun dinner together. As everyone is having a relaxed conversation about weird things their dog has eaten or how good the food is, things get tense when Gardner brings up Aziz Ansari.
Suddenly, everyone is terrified about the prospect of trying to discuss the situation.
Unlike sexual assault and harassment, the accusations against Ansari are about an incident that started off as consensual.
The story published on Babe.net quotes a woman who said Ansari pressured her to have sex during a date despite her expressing that she didn’t want to. The story has divided opinions: Some see the incident as a form of sexual misconduct that needs to be dealt with, and others, like one published in the New York Times, say that the woman didn’t clearly communicate she didn’t want to have sex.
That’s where “SNL” finds its dinner guests, as they each try to express their opinions. Kate McKinnon takes the first pass.
“I will speak on the topic of Aziz Ansari,” McKinnon starts. “I think that–”
“Careful,” Ferrell, as McKinnon’s husband, cautions.
“I think that some women–” McKinnon continues, before Bryant steps in: “Careful.”
McKinnon tries again. “Rather, I think that some men have a proclivity–”
“Careful!” Thompson adds, before McKinnon passes the topic to him, crying, “Help me!”
Things go from tense to apocalyptic, though, when Thompson adds that people should be thinking about how the #MeToo discussion intersects with race, cuing a montage of stampedes, nuclear bombs exploding, and all manner of other destruction.
Watch the entire sketch above.