SNL UK has spoofed two of this week’s biggest stories – namely Kanye West‘s scrapped Wireless Festival slot and Melania Trump’s bizarre press conference addressing her connection to Jeffrey Epstein.
The fourth episode of the recently imported UK edition of the show opened with a sketch that saw comics Jack Shep, Al Nash and Annabel Marlow sitting in the sun and playing a game of “Never Have I Ever.”
“Never have I ever kissed two boys on one night,” Shep says, to which Marlow replies: “Guilty!”, then ramping things up by saying: “Never have I ever accidentally booked a Neo-Nazi to headline a music festival for three nights.”
It follows widespread criticism after West, who now goes by Ye, was booked to headline all three nights of Wireless. Given his well-publicised history of making anti-Semitic remarks, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that it was “deeply concerning” that he had been booked despite his “celebration of Nazism”.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also spoke out against the decision, and it later emerged that Ye’s right to enter the UK was under government review. Earlier this week, Ye was blocked from travelling to the UK by the government, leading to Wireless itself being cancelled.
“Girl, you said you wouldn’t bring that up!” Shep fired back at the mention of the Ye firestorm. Melania Trump then emerged from behind a bush, played by Emma Sidi, exclaiming: “Never have I ever been friends with Jeffrey Epstein.”
Sidi’s Melania then suggests a game of “Truth or Dare,” beginning with: “How dare you accuse me of female friendship with short-haired sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell?”
“Why do you keep bringing up all the Epstein stuff?” Marlow asks, while Shep adds: “Yeah like, your husband literally started a war to distract us all from it.”
Earlier this week, Melania made a bafflingly out-of-the-blue statement about Epstein, saying that she never had a relationship with him or Maxwell. “The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” the First Lady said in a surprise press conference.
At the end of the sketch, Melania then begs for “one last chance” from her new friends, explaining that she no longer has any “since they all died in a maximum security prison.”
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 for sex trafficking and was found dead in his jail cell in August of that year, with authorities later determining that he hanged himself. Following his death, a sustained campaign pushing for the full publication of all documents and photos that would reveal the high-profile names he associated with followed.
For help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.
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