As is tradition at this point, Saturday Night Live tumbled into a spectacularly lackluster sketch this weekend. The Cecily Strong and Saoirse Ronan-starring "Aer Lingus," however, was not only spectacularly lackluster. It was also a bit offensive to a number of SNL viewers.
Setting aside the annoyingly Trump-esque tone of @AerLingus' response, the backlash to the unfunny sketch was palpable. "SNL, i am BEGGING you: make fun of Chinese people as often as you make fun of the Irish," one YouTube commenter said. "Thanks in advance [sic]." Another kept waiting for the punch line, only to learn that it was never going to come. "What was this supposed to even be about?" the commenter asked.
Disapproval of the sketch, either for its general unfunniness or its use of stereotypes, also trickled over to Twitter.
The rest of this weekend's SNL was noticeably better. "Welcome to Hell" invited sexual harassers to enjoy their new purgatory, the cold open gave Alec Baldwin's Trump the chance to chat with spirit versions of Billy Bush and Vladimir Putin, and an animated Kendrick Lamar popped in during U2's performance.
