Saturday Night Live have become the latest to take a shot at Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson with a new sketch which has been criticised on social media.
Davidson today came out with a fresh statement on the BAFTAs racial slur incident, saying he ‘refuses to apologise’ for having Tourette’s.
This comes after he said the N word whilst Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan were on stage at the BAFTAs presenting the award, something picked up by a live microphone and kept in the final broadcast unedited.
Since then he has faced a great deal of criticism, with Jamie Foxx having publicly commented on Instagram saying that he ‘absolutely meant’ what he said.
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This has been widely criticised, with a black woman with Tourette’s speaking to LADbible and saying that this was ‘ignorant’.
Despite this backlash though people have continued to poke fun at Davidson for the incident.
At the BET awards over the weekend presenter Deon Cole opened with a prayer, though he joked: “Lord, before we go, if there are any white men out here in the audience with Tourette’s, I advise you to tell them they better read the room tonight, Lord. It might not go the way they thinketh.”
SNL continued this pile on by producing a sketch in which various cancelled celebrities came forward stating that they now have Tourette’s under the guise of the ‘National Workforce of Rethinking Disabilities.’
This included them pretending to be Mel Gibson, Armie Hammer, Bill Cosby, J.K. Rowling, Louis CK all blaming their various controversies on Tourette’s after the fact.
Kenan Thompson plays Bill Cosby in the sketch, which was cut for time but uploaded to YouTube, who blames his sexual assault and rape of women on Tourette’s.
Unsurprisingly this has come under heavy fire online, with one post about this on X saying: “This is genuinely actually one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen.
“A disabled man mocked on prime-time American TV insinuating that Tourette’s is actually voluntary. Everyone in this sketch should feel ashamed.
“Comparing John Davidson to Bill Cosby is actually just vile.”
The sketch has also seen disability rights campaigners come forward to criticise SNL with Emma McNally, the CEO of Tourette’s Action, releasing a statement.
She said: “Mocking a disability is never acceptable. It would not be tolerated for any other condition, and it should not be tolerated by people with Tourette’s.
“Tourette’s is a complex neurological condition, of which there is no cure. It is not a joke. It is not a personality trait.
“Videos and posts that deliberately misrepresent or sensationalise tics set us back years.
“A single video can undo the progress our community has spent years building toward greater awareness.”
LADbible group have contacted SNL for comment.
Topics: Saturday Night Live, Social Media, TV and Film, TV, BAFTAs
Michael Slavin