Chloe Fineman, Timothée Chalamet, And "Saturday Night Live" Made Fun Of Britney Spears And Other Celebrities, And There's A Lot Of Mixed Reactions
After a new sketch parodying the pop star, Saturday Night Live may be in hot water with Britney Spears's fans.
Last night, Timothée Chalamet hosted SNL, which would've been a great opportunity to promote the second installment of Dune. Unfortunately, the SAG-AFTRA strike pushed the release date of the sci-fi epic to March 15, 2024. Luckily, Timothée still has Wonka, which hits theaters next month.
While Timothée did a fair job hosting the weekend sketch comedy show, people couldn't stop talking about one particular sketch, which took a few jabs at Timothée. However, according to fans, they took a major swing at Britney's new memoir, The Woman in Me.
The sketch featured Chloe Fineman, known for her impressions of Drew Barrymore, Nicole Kidman, and Britney. She's portrayed Britney before as seen in this April 2022 episode.
For the memoir's audiobook, Britney only read the forward while the rest of the book was read by actor Michelle Williams. In the sketch, Chloe's fake Britney teases that Michelle wasn't the only one who wanted to read the book, and SNL pulls out every celebrity impression you could think of.
Here's Heidi Gardner as Allison Janney:
Timothée as Martin Scorsese:
Sarah Sherman as Dame Maggie Smith:
Mikey Day as Steve-O:
Ego Nwodim as Jada Pinkett Smith:
Molly Kearney as Kevin James:
Chloe as Natasha Lyonne:
And Chloe again, as Julia Fox:
People quickly noticed that the lines read during Julia Fox's parody were not from the book. They were from a joke posted by a user on X (formally known as Twitter), which I might have attributed to backlash toward the sketch.
Fans began to question whether or not the jokes about Britney and her memoir were funny or just in poor taste. Here's what some of the mixed reactions are saying:
There are a lot of people who found the joke "distasteful" or "disrespectful."
what’s so funny about a woman’s trauma
— girl posts💄 (@itgirlposts) November 12, 2023
Yeah no, like I’m sure their intentions are in the right place but this is no SNL joking matter
— steven ❀ (@arianaunext) November 12, 2023
I don’t know why everything about Britney and her life has to be made into a joke, yet here we are… pic.twitter.com/eJ9iKbCnta
— 𝔏𝔢𝔞𝔥.❁ | 𝒜𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓁 👼🏽 (@redforjanet) November 12, 2023
In her book Britney Spears wrote about her traumas and how everyone used her even her family members mistreated her and SNL have the audacity to make her fun like this way? Shame on them!
— rii. (@unbeleafablee) November 12, 2023
this feels very weird and disrespectful tbh
— leon (@skyferrori) November 12, 2023
That's kind of really gross & distasteful, quite frankly.
— Danika ♡ (@Pigs_FlyHere) November 12, 2023
I’m glad I’m not the only one who had a problem with it. like it doesn’t matter if it’s just celebrity impressions and they weren’t shading britney. it turns the serious conversations in her book into joking matters .and that is NOT funny.
— steven ❀ (@arianaunext) November 12, 2023
SNL needs to be held accountable for this. They should apologise.
— BOBBEY (@CalIMeDon) November 12, 2023
Some people took this as an opportunity to criticize the entire program and its comedy.
SNL really fell off so much they need to do this crap for some controversy lol
— MichēI (@michelmikey17) November 12, 2023
Further proof that SNL writers steal all their jokes from Twitter
— 𝐒𝐮𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐚🕊️❥𝕾𝖙𝖆𝖓✰ᵇᵘⁿⁿʸ✰ (@Suvarna_17) November 12, 2023
SNL is so cringe sorry.. I’ve legitimately never laughed at a SNL skit since 2009
— SNS 🇺🇸 (@Snshores) November 12, 2023
And others found the segment "actually funny" and not offensive.
Ok 4 of them was actually funny pic.twitter.com/031COlErvF
— Branden (@urbanzosf) November 12, 2023
The Britney Spears' memoir skit was pure comedic brilliance. Kudos to the cast for bringing humor to pop culture moments! 👏
— Millie 🍒 (@MillieMoxxie) November 12, 2023
The Britney Spears audio book auditions skit deserves an Emmy. Also? Clowning Chalamet, while he is an actual guest host? 😆 👏🏼 #SNL
— kimber 💜✨ (@kimbertiiimber) November 12, 2023
Different take than some- i think it’s fun that SNL did the Britney book sketch. It just shows how culturally relevant she is and nothing was offensive
— tina d 💓 (@tinadoy88) November 12, 2023
This was unexpectedly funny 😂
— Bambi🌸 (@Japanesebambi) November 12, 2023
the Britney and Natasha impressions!!! 😂🤣😭💀💯 #SNL pic.twitter.com/5sWf4tjvAE
— 𝕋𝕙𝕖𝕄𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕪𝕄𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕠𝕗𝕄𝕖 (@MessyMindofMe) November 12, 2023
What do you think about SNL's parody of Britney Spears's The Woman in Me? Was it funny, or did it go too far?
Watch the full sketch of "The Woman in Me: Auditions" here.
Stream Saturday Night Live on Peacock.