So many have been talking about this past weekend’s Saturday Night Live episode, with guest host Andrew Garfield of The Amazing Spider Man
movies, calling it one of the best episodes in a long time, and especially that Beyonce revenge skit with Garfield, which some are calling “one of the greatest SNL skits ever.” I have to admit it was
pretty damn funny (and dare I say pretty accurate as well…at least to me).
However, things have not been going well for Leslie Jones, one of SNL’s new writers, who was hired after the brouhaha over the show’s lack of diversity.
Jones appeared on the weekly SNL news segment, portraying herself
as an image expert, during which she talked about Lupita
Nyong’o’s recent honor as this year’s Most Beautiful Person by People
Magazine.
However, Jones’ skit went sort of “off key,” so to speak, and, to be honest, I wasn’t really sure what the
point of it was, except for Jones to make fun of her own looks, and talk about slavery in a comical
context.
Now I’m a firm believer that anything can be used for humor if it’s
done right (or tasteless enough), but Jones’ jokes fell completely flat.
Needless to say, the Black Twitter and Facebook universes went ablaze, criticizing Jones for the bit, calling it outdated, misogynist, offensive,
unfunny, and some even suggesting that Jones actually did not write the material
herself, and that it was probably the work of the white writers on the show.
Jones, however, obviously upset with the negative
reaction, fired back at her critics on Twitter, defending the bit in a lengthy series of tweets, which follows below:
“… saddens me that BLACK PEOPLE bitch and moan about the stupid shit. I’m a comic
and it is my job to take things and make them funny to make you think,
especially the painful things. Why are y’all so mad? This joke was written
from the pain that one night I realized that black men don’t really fuck with
me and why I am single. And that in slave days I would have always have a man
cause of breeding.”
She went on to say…
“If
anybody should be offended it’s white folks cause it’s what they did. Y’all so
busy trying to be self righteous you miss what the joke really is. Very sad I
have to defend myself to black people. Now I’m betting if Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle
did that joke or Jay Z or Kanye in a rap they would be called brilliant. cause
they all do this type of material. Just cause it came from a strong black women
who ain’t afraid to be real, y’all mad.”
And still she went on…
“So
here is my announcement black folks, you won’t stop me from and I’m gonna go even
harder and deeper now. cause it’s a shame that we kill each other instead of support
each other. This is exactly why black people re where we are now cause we too
fucking sensitive and instead of making lemonade of our lemons we just suck the
sour juice from the lemons.”
And that wasn’t even all of it. She continued on after the above tirade (you can read her entire Twitter rant HERE).
Take a look at the SNL bit in case you missed it, and then tell
us who you think is right here? Jones, or the people who criticized her?