Latest news with #SNL
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Amy Poehler Admits ‘I Misappropriated' with Certain ‘SNL' Sketches: ‘We All Played People' We Shouldn't Have
Amy Poehler knows that certain 'Saturday Night Live' sketches during her time on the series haven't aged well. An 'SNL' cast member from 2001 to 2008, Poehler portrayed public figures such as Japanese artist Yoko Ono and former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during her time at Studio 8H. Now, Poehler has reflected on what she learned from potentially problematic sketches. More from IndieWire 'KPop Demon Hunters' Finds Music That Slays (Monsters) Watch the 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' Writers Discuss How They Have Become Experts at 'Pivoting' Poehler said during her 'Good Hang' podcast in the below video that 'getting older and being in comedy is you have to, like, figure out, 'Oh, it's like everything has an expiration date.'' Poehler returned earlier this year to NBC's 'SNL' stage for the 50th anniversary event, which included an 'In Memoriam' segment for such sketches. 'There was even on the 50th, when they had that segment which was like, 'Here's all the ways we got things wrong,' and they showed way inappropriate casting for people,' she said. 'We all played people that we should not have played. I misappropriated, I appropriated…I didn't know.' Poehler added, '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.' During the 50th anniversary show, Tom Hanks introduced the 'In Memoriam' segment, saying, '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?' Poehler previously recalled being part of the star-studded 'SNL50' special. 'It was a night of famous alumni and people,' Poehler said on the 'Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend' podcast. 'There were so many people that people had to share dressing rooms, so I was sharing my dressing room with Meryl Streep. Just like a fan, I was taking a picture of the door that said my name and 'Meryl Streep,' and it was really cool.' Poehler added '[Meryl Streep] was getting ready for her sketch and really rehearsing it, and I remember thinking, 'I have never rehearsed as hard as Meryl Streep is in this one moment.'' Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
New York Post
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Amy Poehler says ‘we all played people we should not have' as she reflects on controversial SNL sketches
Comedic actress and 'Saturday Night Live' alum Amy Poehler spoke candidly on Tuesday's episode of her 'Good Hang' podcast about some of her past gags in comedy, saying some of them would be offensive by today's standards. During Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary, the show had an 'In Memoriam' segment cutting ties with jokes and characters that have aged poorly as societal norms have changed. Advertisement The segment featured numerous characters playing 'ethnic stereotypes,' engaging in 'sexual harassment,' 'body-shaming,' 'gay panic,' and other controversial moments from the show's 50 years of being on the air. Outspoken liberal actor Tom Hanks, who gave the intro to the segment, noted that, '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?' Poehler noted on Tuesday's interview with fellow SNL alumni Will Forte that part of 'getting older and being in comedy is you have to like figure out, like, 'Oh, it's like everything has an expiration date.'' She cringed at a past incident where she claimed that during a sexual harassment seminar, she had been drawing pictures of penises and passing them back and forth with Forte, and accidentally passed the illustrations to the seminar host because she mistook it for the sign-in sheet. Advertisement 'He was like 'What's this?' and I said 'Oh, that's the wrong – Sir, that's the wrong paper.'' 4 'We all played people that we should not have played,' Amy Poehler confessed. Good Hang with Amy Poehler / YouTube 4 Poehler portrayed Kim Jong-Il in a 2006 segment on 'Saturday Night Live.' NBCUniversal via Getty Images She then brought up her takeaway from the 'In Memoriam' segment. Advertisement 'I mean there's, like, even on the 50th when they had that segment which was like, 'Here's all the ways we got things wrong' and they showed way inappropriate casting for people you know, we all played people that we should not have played, I misappropriated, I appropriated, I didn't know, I did know,' she said. Poehler could be recognizably seen in one portion of the In Memoriam segment where a character played by Ben Affleck appears to be berating a mentally-disabled character. Many other actors in other snippets were blurred out for being in makeup, playing characters of other races. 4 Amy Poehler played Michael Jackson as Rachel Dratch acted as Elizabeth Taylor during the 'Michael Jackson in a Tree' sketch that aired in 2003. NBCUniversal via Getty Images Advertisement 4 Jake Gyllenhaal did a Jennifer Hudson impression with the SNL cast members singing in the background. Dana Edelson According to Entertainment Weekly, 'Some of Poehler's more questionable impressions from her time on SNL include Michael Jackson, Yoko Ono, and Kim Jong-il.' Poehler also played Kim Jong-il in a 2006 segment, with actors Bill Hader and Fred Armisen portraying North Korean guards during the North Korean leader's speech. 'It's very real and the best thing you can do is, like, make repair, learn from your mistakes, do better, like it's all you can do,' Poehler said.
Fox News
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Amy Poehler says 'we all played people we should not have' as she reflects on controversial SNL skits
Comedic actress and "Saturday Night Live" alum Amy Poehler spoke candidly on Tuesday's episode of her "Good Hang" podcast about some of her past gags in comedy, saying some of them would be offensive by today's standards. During Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary, the show had an "In Memoriam" segment cutting ties with jokes and characters that have aged poorly as societal norms have changed. The segment featured numerous characters playing "ethnic stereotypes," engaging in "sexual harassment," "body-shaming," "gay panic," and other controversial moments from the show's 50 years of being on the air. Outspoken liberal actor Tom Hanks, who gave the intro to the segment, noted that, "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?" Poehler noted on Tuesday's interview with fellow SNL alumni Will Forte that part of "getting older and being in comedy is you have to like figure out, like, 'Oh, it's like everything has an expiration date.'" She cringed at a past incident where she claimed that during a sexual harassment seminar, she had been drawing pictures of penises and passing them back and forth with Forte, and accidentally passed the illustrations to the seminar host because she mistook it for the sign-in sheet. "He was like 'What's this?' and I said 'Oh, that's the wrong – Sir, that's the wrong paper.'" She then brought up her takeaway from the "In Memoriam" segment. "I mean there's, like, even on the 50th when they had that segment which was like, 'Here's all the ways we got things wrong' and they showed way inappropriate casting for people you know, we all played people that we should not have played, I misappropriated, I appropriated, I didn't know, I did know," she said. Poehler could be recognizably seen in one portion of the In Memoriam segment where a character played by Ben Affleck appears to be berating a mentally-disabled character. Many other actors in other snippets were blurred out for being in makeup, playing characters of other races. According to Entertainment Weekly, "Some of Poehler's more questionable impressions from her time on SNL include Michael Jackson, Yoko Ono, and Kim Jong-il." Poehler also played Kim Jong-il in a 2006 segment, with actors Bill Hader and Fred Armisen portraying North Korean guards during the North Korean leader's speech. "It's very real and the best thing you can do is, like, make repair, learn from your mistakes, do better, like it's all you can do," Poehler said.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Late Night host Seth Meyers makes grim prediction for the future of his show
Seth Meyers has admitted there's not a bright future for late night, saying his show will no longer exist a decade from now. The Late Night with Seth Meyers host on Wednesday said that the format will be no more in 10 years, after fellow host Jimmy Kimmel made the same grim prediction last year. 'Unless some major sea change happens, I don't think there's going to be a whole new wave of network hosts, in the way there always has been,' Meyers, 51, told Variety. 'Nobody understands this business and this format better than Jimmy Kimmel, so when he talks about it, I tend to share his opinion. 'I feel very fortunate about when I got in - both at " SNL" and with "Late Night." 'But it does bum me out that other people won't have exactly this opportunity.' The longtime NBC personality added that podcasters 'have just as big of a reach as we ever had.' Scroll down for video: 'Interesting voices are always going to use the technologies they have at hand to find an audience,' he said. In May, NBC renewed Meyers' contract to remain as host through 2028, after 10 years of declining ratings. The show launched in February 2014 to much greater fanfare, then raking in 1.995 million average viewers. Meyers was an instant hit, averaging more viewers than predecessor Jimmy Fallon while pulling in more young adults than David Letterman and Kimmel despite their shows airing an hour earlier. Today, he still leads the 'late-night' hour - which starts around 12:30am - but has seen his total viewers drop to 906,000, for a decline of more than 1 million. The decline has been seen across the board, with Stephen Colbert, Kimmel and Fallon' seeing similar numbers. Meyers also discussed 'how much longer' he sees himself behind the desk after re-upping his contract. 'After '28, I think we'll go on a week-to-week contract,' he joked to Variety. 'No - the network knows that I would like to do it as long as they'll have me. 'So, if you're a great lover of the institution of late-night talk shows, there's probably some sadness in your future.' The rest of Meyers' interview covered the changing media landscape, a year after his show was forced to reduce its budget and lay off its band. Asked about the trend of politicians appearing on comedians' podcasts and whether he was 'envious,' Meyer's said he and his contemporaries had already 'weaned [them]selves off politicians' as guests. 'We have more fun talking about politics than talking to politicians,' Meyers said, a little more than a year after hosting President Joe Biden. More than a decade before, in April 2011, he was hosting the White House Correspondent's Dinner, where he famously took aim at Donald Trump for his political aspirations. 'Donald Trump has been saying he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising since I just assumed he was running as a joke,' Meyers said, poking fun at the eventual president several times. Trump reportedly left humiliated after more jokes mocking his hair, his taste, and his pedaling of the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was born outside the United States.
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
It all began in Miami for TV genius Desi Arnaz. Then he made it big with Lucy
Desi Arnaz is returning to Miami as the focal point of a new book. Long before he loved Lucy, Arnaz loved Miami. The city and the budding celebrity fueled one another. 'Desi's time in Miami is where he became a professional musician, honing his skills with audiences and creating a sensation with the conga,' author Todd S. Purdum said in an email to the Miami Herald while traveling on his book tour. 'It was a crucial stop on his journey to stardom in the days when Miami Beach featured the top stars of show business, who were impressed by Desi's charisma and appeal. He and his parents were grateful for the foothold that Miami gave them to pursue the American dream.' Purdum will read selections from his new book, 'Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television,' Saturday evening, June 21, at Books & Books in Coral Gables. The book is a tribute to a man who started his entertainment life in Miami. He died in 1986. Arnaz's TV vision The book's title isn't hyperbole. Sure, television existed before 'I Love Lucy,' the sitcom Arnaz starred in with his wife, Lucille Ball and which debuted on CBS on Oct. 15, 1951. But Arnaz's vision shaped the way we watch TV today. Do you enjoy streaming syndicated reruns of 'I Love Lucy' as well as 'Law and Order,' 'Friends' and 'Star Trek?' Thank Arnaz. Arnaz and Ball's production company, Desilu, formed during their 20-year marriage and 'I Love Lucy' partnership, was behind that 1960s 'Star Trek' TV show, too, a sci-fi staple that turned into a television and film franchise. Just another of the duo's behind-the-scenes achievements. 'He was a proud yet simple man with chispa, spark. He never forgot where he came from even as he built a studio empire in Hollywood and changed forever the way television sitcoms are created,' former Miami Herald Editorial Board leader Myriam Marquez wrote in a column in 2010. Arnaz's band life in the 1930s, '40s and '50s was the basis for the musical 'Babalu' that was playing at downtown Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts at the time. 'To this day, most sitcoms are shot with three cameras and before a live audience using video. He started with film until video was developed. Arnaz's technique opened the way for TV reruns and syndication,' Marquez wrote. Leading conga lines 'Babalu' took its title from Arnaz's signature tune, a joyous Afro-Cuban song he performed as host and music guest of the Feb. 21, 1976, episode of 'Saturday Night Live' during its first season. Arnaz, at 58 and starting the last decade of his life, closed that show by leading the 'SNL' cast on a conga line through the NBC studio in New York. This exuberant televised live showcase of the conga line with the late night 'SNL' Not Ready for Prime Time Players cast came a decade before Gloria Estefan's 'Conga' English-language breakthrough. Nearly 50 years ago, that 'SNL' performance was a reprise of the way Arnaz, in his struggling musician days, introduced the conga line to the U.S. direct from Miami Beach in 1937. He had done so from the stage of the Park Avenue Restaurant on the corner of Collins Avenue and 23rd Street, once a main artery of Miami Beach's entertainment scene. He initially dubbed his conga line his 'Dance of Desperation.' In October 2024, city of Miami Beach officials installed a permanent marker honoring Arnaz at Collins Park near where the Park Avenue stood. Today, the site of that former restaurant-entertainment venue at 2200 Liberty Ave. is the Miami City Ballet's headquarters. You can stream that 'SNL' episode featuring Arnaz on Peacock because of his original vision to film 'I Love Lucy' with multiple cameras, giving studios the opportunity to share classic TV moments for generations to come. Miami's blueprint Even that inspired vision could be traced to the actor-musician's earliest days in Miami and Miami Beach. Arnaz simply had an eye for a room and how to maximize the space for aesthetic as well as monetary purposes. From the 'Desi Arnaz' book: '[H]is father had joined some other Cuban exiles in starting a business to import Mexican tile — roof tiles, bath tiles, kitchen tiles. The Pan American Importing and Exporting Company was capitalized with all of $500 and was operating in a small building on Third Street southwest in Miami. Desi suggested to his father that they close off a portion of the warehouse as living quarters and save the $5 a week they had been paying the boardinghouse. Purdum's 'Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Changed Television' recounts Arnaz's career, starting with his arrival in Miami from Cuba in 1933 with his father, Desiderio Sr. The elder Arnaz had been Santiago's youngest mayor and a member of the Cuban House of Representatives before Fulgencio Batista's first coup. Arnaz's maternal grandfather, Alberto de Acha, was an executive at rum producer Bacardi & Co. The man born Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III in Santiago de Cuba on March 2, 1917, arrived penniless in Miami before his 17th birthday. He initially made a living in the U.S. cleaning canary cages. In the fall of 1936, he enrolled at Miami Beach's St. Patrick Parish School on Garden Avenue and completed his formal education at Miami Senior High School. In Cuba, Arnaz once envisioned a law career. After school at Miami High, Arnaz reinvented himself as a self-taught musician in Miami Beach. Without that South Florida start, it's likely there would have been no Lucy to love. Arnaz's father remained in Miami until his death in 1973. After 'I Love Lucy' ended in 1960, Arnaz continued his career in production and performing from a base in California. But he helped support relatives who lived in Miami. 'He did make a number of emotional return visits — to perform or celebrate the first Carnaval — and he always retained a warm affection for Miami and the friendships and formative experiences he had there,' Purdum said. Arnaz was the first king of Carnaval Miami in 1982. He played his music with his children Lucie and Desi Jr. at that inaugural event before a crowd of 35,000 on Southwest Eighth Street. Miami in the 1930s 'It's easy to forget that when Desi and his father arrived in Miami, it was 25 years before the mass exodus of Cubans after Fidel Castro's revolution,' said Mindy Marqués Gonzalez, editor of 'Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television' and a vice president at publisher Simon & Schuster. 'The main Cuban emigre community was in Tampa and Miami was still a sleepy southern town. They would have been one of the few Cubans here. In some ways, Desi and his father were trailblazers for the thousands of Cubans who would follow and transform the city into a multicultural mecca,' said Marqués, a former Miami Herald executive editor. This earlier era of Miami was where Arnaz and a school chum, Sonny Capone (son of the gangster, Al, who had lived on Miami Beach's Palm Island), would get together after class to sing and play the bongo drums. Arnaz parlayed his talents to a spot in a rumba group called the Siboney Septet, named for the seaside Cuban town just outside Santiago, that was playing at Miami Beach's original Roney Plaza on Collins Avenue. For $39 a week. Arnaz's Latin rhythm skills on the conga drums and infectious stage mannerisms came to the attention of popular band leader Xavier Cugat. 'Miami was the formative stage of Desi's new life in America after Cuba,' Marqués said. 'It's here that he picked up a $5 guitar at a pawn shop and started playing again, like he did in Cuba. And that led to his being 'discovered' by Xavier Cugat, which led to everything else.' That introduction to Cugat, and joining his orchestra for six months, led to Arnaz's musical career at New York clubs and his winter return engagements with his own band at Miami Beach entertainment venues like La Conga on 23rd Street. Thanks in part to Arnaz's musical chops and other musicians he played alongside, the area came to be known by locals and music fans as a 'corner of Havana in Miami Beach,' Purdum reported in his book. 'Desi left his mark, without ever denying who he was,' Myriam Marquez, the Herald's former opinion editor, wrote in her 2010 column. 'How hard must it have been 75 years ago in a country that still had segregated public facilities and often looked at 'foreigners' with suspicion. I recall his writing about his days on the tour bus heading from one gig to another, how he would hang out with his Black musician friends, even when promoters weren't too thrilled about that.' Marrying Lucy Arnaz met Lucille Ball on the set of a 1940 film, 'Too Many Girls,' in which they both had roles. The New York-born redhead and the Cuban Miami music maverick wed that year. 'Today, this kind of marriage in Miami is commonplace. It was such a precursor of what was to come in this community,' Miami filmmaker Joe Cardona said in a 2001 interview with the Herald on the 50th anniversary of 'I Love Lucy.' 'To Cubans in South Florida, this was kind of like looking into a crystal ball,' Cardona said. 'Here was a show that actually featured somebody who sounded like my father. Somebody who looked like my uncle. Somebody my brother could grow up to be,' wrote former Herald columnist Ana Veciana Suarez in 2001. Within a decade of their marriage, the world would come to consider the Ball-Arnaz couple family, a relationship that outlasted their marriage, their professional union, Arnaz's post 'Lucy' career, and their lives. Arnaz died of lung cancer at age 69 in 1986. Smoking Purdum recounts in his book, 'Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television,' how, upon arrival from Cuba by ferryboat to Key West in the early 1930s, father and teenage son were driven to their first home in Miami. 'On the bus ride to Miami, the mayor made a gesture that implied recognition of how fast Desi had grown up since they'd last met: He offered his son a cigarette,' Purdum wrote. Arnaz, like so many actors of the time, smoked on camera. His habit formed the basis for a sketch on the 1976 'Saturday Night Live' episode he hosted. Arnaz played an acupuncturist treating an ailing patient portrayed by John Belushi. But not 'Chinese acupuncture with needles' Arnaz warns the wary Belushi. 'Cuban acupuncture, with cigars.' When Arnaz died at his California home, after visits from his family, including ex-wife Ball, and with their daughter Lucie at his bedside, the Miami Herald's obituary quoted the musician-actor's doctor. 'He died of lung cancer. It was from smoking those Cuban cigars — that's the truth.' Remembering 'Ricky' Actress and singer Lucie Arnaz said of her father's lifelong work ethic in a 2006 interview: 'He had a lot of moxie and integrity because he had to keep on going. He had to start over, and he had to build everything again. He was fearless.' Ball, in a 1983 interview with Ladies Home Journal six years before she died in 1989 at 77 after heart surgery, said of her ex-husband: Desi 'was much smarter than anyone thought. He was a great showman, a great businessman, a fantastic entrepreneur, and I loved watching the executives finding that out.' In his 1976 autobiography, 'A Book,' that he plugged on 'SNL,' Arnaz recalled his 'great days in Miami Beach.' Basketball. Hot dogs. Beach picnics. On one of his last visits to Miami in 1982, to take his crown as king of the first Carnaval Miami, he told Herald reporters, 'I am returning to my first place — Miami. I started here.' If you go What: An Evening with Todd S. Purdum and moderator Carlos Frias discussing Purdum's book, 'Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television.' When: 7 p.m. Saturday, June 21. Where: Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables. Cost: Free. You can buy the book at the event. Or buy tickets in advance and get one copy of the book for $29.99 plus tax.
