SNL star Michael Che responds to cultural appropriation criticism over his Gen Z hospital sketch

Saturday Night Live star Michael Che has reacted to backlash over his ‘Gen Z Hospital’ sketch after it was criticized for misappropriating AAVE (African-American Vernacular English).

After the episode aired on May 8, social media users had a lot to say about the sketch which saw host Elon Musk acting alongside Kate McKinnon, Bowen Yang, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, Melissa Villaseñor, and Mikey Day.

The segment saw the group using popular slang such as ‘bestie, sis, no cap, go off, king’ and other ‘youth-talk’ that is often seen online.

Though the sketch was attempting to mock the overuse of these terms by Gen Z, many found it to be an offensive form of cultural appropriation because most of the terms originate from AAVE.

One Twitter user wrote: ‘i hate how aave has been reduced to gen z / stan twitter language because those who have any knowledge about anything watch this and just feel gross about this subtle mockery of black people.’

‘Love the relabelling of AAVE and a few assorted BLACK LGBTQ+ phrases as “Gen z” speak,’ another commented.

One viewer stated: ‘the appropriation of AAVE by white people is gross, the mislabeling of AAVE as a “Gen Z phenomenon” is also gross,’ but on top of that, the SNL skit reads like they just pulled a list of terms from UrbanDictionary and sprinkled them in, not caring that AAVE has a defined grammar!’

Another unamused viewer added: ‘SNL’s gen z hospital sketch might just be the worst thing I have ever witnessed. unbearable levels of cringe.’

Addressing the criticism in a since-deleted Instagram post, Micheal revealed he wrote the sketch and had been unaware about AAVE.

He wrote (per Deadline): ‘I’ve been reading about how my “gen z” sketch was misappropriating AAVE and I was stunned cause what the f*** is “AAVE”?

‘I had to look it up. Turns out it’s an acronym for “African American vernacular English.” You know, AAVE! That ol’ saying that actual black people use in conversation all the time…’

The Weekend Update host continued: ‘Look, the sketch bombed. I’m used to that. I meant no offense to the “AAVE” community. I love AAVE. AAVE to the moon!’

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays on NBC in the US.

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