SNL’s Oscars Parody Tackled The #MeToo Movement And People Are Pissed

Those irrepressible jokesters at Saturday Night Live have parodied the Academy Awards with a sketch called ‘The Grabbies’, celebrating “the year’s worst behaviour in entertainment”. It’s a topical and delicate subject, and not everyone is convinced they’ve done it justice.

Sexual harassment in Hollywood is obviously a huge issue at the moment in the wake of allegations against such high profile figures as Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Ryan Seacrest, as well as the #MeToo and #Time’s Up initiatives, so it’s not surprising SNL have tackled the subject.

A lot of people were fans of the sketch, finding it a timely response to a huge issue.

Pete Davidson aside, "The Grabbies" is a pretty good opening sketch.

I could see it actually working. People would definitely watch. Hell, I can see accused men showing up, trying to show they "get it" or have a sense of humor or something. #SNL

— Hyperion (@HyperionEmpire) March 4, 2018

The sketch does have some good moments, especially its satire of the ‘Best Non-Apology’ award, in which the show highlighted the all too frequent hypocrisy of male actors who are vocal supporters of the anti-harassment movement until their own bad behaviour is scrutinised. It also made a good point in acknowledging how easily distracted the media cycle is on this topic (“First I’d like to thanks guns for pivoting the national conversation away from harassment,” says Pete Davies.)

But many people felt that, along with being in poor taste, the show’s choice to lampoon imaginary actors rather than real life figures was cowardly. Considering the absolute wealth of real figures they could reference, it did seem an odd choice. Have a watch of it here:

Along with the ethical questions around the sketch, many found the actual delivery lacking. The show often excels in easily recognised formats, so they should have been easily able to slam-dunk a red carpet interview sketch, but while the writing is pretty solid, many of the jokes failed to land.

Of course, nobody was shy to take their views on the sketch online:

SNL *almost* had the balls to get one right. “The Grabbies” bit pussed out hard, and as a result it crashed and burned. They are willing to makes “jokes” of insinuations about President Trump, but had a parade of *fictional* Hollywood men when lampooning #metoo . Scared. Why?

— Bad Man José (@the_real_oqsy) March 4, 2018

#SNL should not be going down the #MeToo road by creating a fake awards show skit called “The Grabbies.” Venturing into dangerous territory here… I get that they’re lampooning the abusers, not the victims, but still…

— Parker W. Mason (@Calichusetts274) March 4, 2018

When you stop and think about the number of accused harassers, assaulters and creepers who have hosted “SNL” recently, some VERY recently, that name-no-names Grabbies sketch was AMAZINGLY toothless.

— Daniel Fienberg (@TheFienPrint) March 4, 2018