‘Everything has an expiration date': Amy Poehler on her ‘inappropriate' ‘SNL' moments, including portraying Michael Jackson and Kim Jong-il
In this week's episode (watch below), she caught up with Tina Fey and Will Forte, her former Saturday Night Live costars, and opened up about how certain aspects of comedy don't age well. Poehler was an SNL cast member between 2001 and 2008, and returned later to host the show in 2010 and 2015 (she won an Emmy for the latter appearance alongside Fey, her cohost). The funny ladies most recently appeared in February's SNL50 anniversary special, where they took questions from the star-studded audience members.
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"Getting older and being in comedy is [figuring out] that everything has an expiration date," Poehler said on the podcast. Addressing the anniversary special's comedic "In Memoriam" montage that alluded to problematic sketches, Poehler added, "They had that segment which was like, 'Here's all the ways we got things wrong,' and they showed way inappropriate casting for people."
While the actress didn't specifically name any of her past controversial moments from Saturday Night Live, she did portray several non-white people on television, including Michael Jackson in a tree and on a roller-coaster, former North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, and Japanese singer-songwriter Yoko Ono. Plus, Poehler was involved in a sketch in which Ben Affleck yelled at a "mentally challenged guy," played by Fred Armisen.
"We all played people that we should not have played," Poehler readily admitted. "I misappropriated, I appropriated ... I didn't know." While stopping short of specifically apologizing, she did go on to say, "It's very real, and the best thing you can do is make repairs, learn from your mistakes, do better. It's all you can do."
The "In Memoriam" montage in question began with Tom Hanks proclaiming, "These SNL characters and sketches have aged horribly. But even though these characters, accents, and — let's just call them 'ethnic wigs' — were unquestionably in poor taste, you all laughed at them. So, if anyone should be canceled, shouldn't it be you, the audience? Something to think about."
Good Hang With Amy Poehler is undoubtedly a frontrunner to receive a Golden Globe nomination in the brand new Best Podcast Award category next year. The goal of the honor is to celebrate excellence in podcasting by recognizing a contender's "quality, creativity, audience engagement, and impact." Each week, Poehler welcomes celebrities, fun people, and famous friends to her studio where they swap stories and talk what's been making them laugh.
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