SNL UK mocks Ed Sheeran in brutal skit following Macklemore controversy

Saturday Night Live UK has mocked singer Ed Sheeran in a brutal skit about Macklemore being dropped as his support act.

It comes after all of the support acts for the singer’s current The Loop tour announced they would not perform in the remaining dates.

Macklemore, whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty, was removed from the line-up over comments he made about Gaza.

Sheeran played his first show since the row on Saturday (19 September), where he broke down and said he had questioned whether he 'wanted to be an artist at all' following the spat.

But he has since copped criticism after users online suggested he was partly reading from a teleprompter screen at the bottom of the stage.

The live Sky show opened with a sketch about the King, played by Larry Dean, and an artificial intelligence (AI) robot of Diana, Princess of Wales which was played by Jack Shep.

In it, the robot’s creators lose control of it, prompting Dean’s character to say "this was the problem last time".

The King then says that the war between humans and robots has begun and that 'we must do everything we can to resist', before Ed Sheeran, played by Annabel Marlow, arrives and says 'or maybe we shouldn’t'.

Dean then says: “Ed Sheeran, what in the devil are you doing here?”

To which the Sheeran character replied: “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation, see I was just outside sitting on the fence.”

The King then asks for Sheeran’s help, to which he sarcastically replies: “Thing is your majesty, I don’t like to take sides, I don’t like to alienate any of my fans, humans or robots, a lot of my tickets are bought by scalping bots.

“You know, sometimes when it comes to conflicts, the bravest thing you can do is to say nothing at all.”

He goes on to sing a song about how 'both sides are equally right'.

The sketch came after Earl Spencer made a series of damning claims about the King in a new memoir chronicling the life of his sister Diana.

The show’s Weekend Update section also took aim at Sheeran, with Ania Magliano opening it by saying: “This week, the Israel/Palestine conflict just got serious, that’s right Ed Sheeran’s US tour is under threat.”

She then asked “will Sheeran have to cancel the tour?”, before adding “there’s a very real risk that he won’t”, and said the incident was “the worst thing to happen to Ed Sheeran fans, since their head injury”.

The section also took aim at Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft, who reportedly told Sheeran the shows at his venue would not go ahead if Macklemore remained on the tour.

Magliano said: “The 85-year-old, seen here picking a coffin, has released his own statement on the Israel/Palestine conflict saying quote, ‘our goal is to work together to build bridges’. Oh Robert, it’s going to break your heart when you find out who’s bombing those.”