Amy Poehler admits she ‘misappropriated’ when reflecting on controversial SNL sketches

‘It's very real, and the best thing you can do is make repairs, learn from your mistakes,’ said the star

Amy Poehler has admitted that some of her work during her time on Saturday Night Live is now offensive in retrospect.

The actor and comedian – who was an SNL cast member between 2001 and 2008 – shared regrets over some of her past material when speaking to former co-star Will Forte on her Good Hang podcast.

Forte began the conversation by saying: “There are so many things I look back now and I go – you think, ‘Oh, it's all about getting a laugh.’”

Poehler agreed with him, adding: “The part about getting older and being in comedy is you have to figure out: Everything has an expiration date."

The Parks and Recreation star, 53, went on to discuss the “In Memoriam” segment that Tom Hanks hosted during the show’s 50th anniversary special in February. The sketch shone a light on some of SNL’s more problematic moments that Hanks said “aged horribly”.

“They had that segment, which was like, 'Here's all the ways we got things wrong,’” Poehler said. “And they showed way inappropriate casting for people. We all played people that we should not have played.”

(Paper Kite Productions)

“I misappropriated. I appropriated. I didn't know. I did know,” she continued. “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.”

Poehler only featured once in the “In Memoriam” montage, popping up in a 2004 sketch in which Ben Affleck is seen berating a character played by Fred Armisen who appears to be disabled. As Affleck is yelling at the man, Poehler walks into frame and says: “Oh my god, Ben Affleck just yelled at that mentally challenged guy!”

SNL has been embroiled in a more recent scandal after airing a sketch in April that poked fun at the appearance of White Lotus actor Aimee Lou Wood. The castmembers later apologised.

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During the episode, SNL reimagined the hit HBO series The White Lotus as The White Potus. The sketch depicted Donald Trump (played by James Austin Johnson) attempting to unwind at an exotic vacation resort with Ivanka Trump (Scarlett Johansson).

The skit also attempted to recreate the dynamic between Rick (Walton Goggins) and his younger girlfriend Chelsea (Wood). SNL cast member Sarah Sherman played Wood in the sketch, but put on a bizarre British accent and wore exaggerated prosthetic teeth in an attempt to parody the actor’s appearance.

Sarah Sherman as Aimee Lou Wood on ‘Saturday Night Live’ (NBC)

In a post shared on her Instagram Story on 13 April, Wood called the skit “unfunny and mean”.

In a subsequent story, the 31-year-old Sex Education star revealed that she had received an apology from the programme.