Nikki Glaser Speaks Out About ‘SNL’ Hosting Debut Amid Backlash
What To Know
- Nikki Glaser celebrated her Saturday Night Live hosting debut, expressing gratitude to the cast, crew, and musical guest.
- Her opening monologue featured controversial jokes about sensitive topics like sexual assault and pedophilia, which sparked backlash from some viewers.
- While many fans and fellow comedians praised her boldness and comedic risk-taking, others criticized the material as inappropriate and offensive.
Nikki Glaser is on cloud nine after making her Saturday Night Live debut, despite receiving some backlash from viewers.
The actress and comedian reflected on her SNL hosting gig in a Monday, November 10, Instagram post. “Best week of my liiiiiiife,” she wrote alongside behind-the-scenes pics and clips from her week on the show. “Thank you so much to Lorne [Michaels], the cast, writers, and all the crew who made this week genuinely FUN and treated me like one of you. I knew this week would be difficult, but I didn’t realize just how compassionate, lighthearted, and encouraging everyone would be every step of the way.”
She continued, “I was surrounded by the most exceptional talent in the business and I learned so damn much from you all. It was an honor to watch you work! I have so much Pinwheel for you all!”
In addition to thanking her family and her personal team, Glaser also gave a special shout-out to the episode’s musical guest, Sombr, for providing the “perfect soundtrack to this week.” Quoting the musician’s song “12 to 12,” she wrote, “‘In a room full of people, I look for you!'”
Fans and celebs alike shared their congratulations with Nikki on her career accomplishment in the post’s comments. “Yessss!!! Congrats on a wonderful show Nikki ❤️🎉💗😍⭐️,” wrote SNL alum Vanessa Bayer, while fellow comedian Atsuko Okatsuka stated, “You made us all proud!”
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“YOU CRUSHED IT!!!! 👏👏👏” one fan praised. Someone else shared, “So happy for you!! What a great episode!!” A different user commented, “You were spectacular! Made me laugh for 90 minutes — best show of the season, hands down 👏.”
For all the compliments Glaser received for her SNL hosting debut, she also was met with backlash from some viewers over jokes featured in her opening monologue. She opened her nine-minute monologue by describing New York City as “[Jeffrey] Epstein‘s original island” before poking fun at pedophilia and sexual assault.
In one joke, Glaser said that she couldn’t relate to Gen Z women’s “big fear” of being sex trafficked. “I’m 41. That was not a fear of mine ever in my 20s. In my 20s, I just feared good old-fashioned rape,” she stated. “I didn’t think it would be a career. We didn’t think it was anything more than a ‘temp job’ on a frat house futon.”
Fans weighed in on the monologue in the clip’s YouTube comments, with some praising her risky material. “Omg her set STAYED right at the line of inappropriate and I loved it lol,” one person wrote, while another added, “Wow, Nikki definitely did not try to play it safe with her jokes tonight. You could really tell this wasn’t quite the right audience for many of the jokes. Kudos to her for not watering down her act for SNL.”
“The riskiest monologue in a long time. I love it!” someone else wrote. A different user shared, “I love she did every problematic joke on national TV most ppl would fear. This is why I love her. You can tell she brought the audience along. They couldn’t help but laugh.”
Others found many of her jokes in poor taste. “I could not believe what I was watching wtf was this?! An all time low for this show,” one X user wrote underneath a clip of the monologue. A different person tweeted, “This was actually horrible and gross. the things she made “jokes” about were not okay. turned it off after this and I’m a huge snl fan and watcher. But this was disgusting. idk how this even got passed the people who work there. Do better.”
A third X user wrote, “The first thing that bothered me, before the nephew bit, was when she kept saying the word ‘Slave’ UGH.” Someone else stated, “Probably one of the worst monologues in recent memory. Literally nothing about pedophilia is fodder for comedy.”
“I love comedy as much if not more then most. Molestation jokes are not funny and they will never be funny,” another heated fan tweeted. “Thats c grade comedian s***. She should be better than that.”
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