Saturday Night Live stars respond to claim there are no ‘hot women’ on the cast

An internet user has sparked backlash after claiming that Saturday Night Live has no “hot women” on its cast. Now, the female cast members of the long-running sketch comedy show have responded.

“Am I the only person who’s ever noticed that SNL has never hired a, like, hot woman?” said TikTok user @jehelis in a video that’s been viewed more than 367,000 times. “I’m not saying that every single woman who has been a cast member on SNL is ugly,” she continued. “It’s just that none of them have ever been, like, hot.”

The TikToker, who goes by Jehelis on the app, went on to claim that it’s because “people refuse to accept” how conventionally attractive women can also be funny, and showed a picture of SNL cast member Heidi Gardner to prove her point.

“What really settled in for me was when they hired this girl,” she said over a photo of Gardner, who joined the SNL cast in 2017. “They make every skit that she’s in… where she plays someone super hot and super dumb, and the point of the joke is that she’s super pretty.”

“And then you start to ask yourself why don’t they hire better looking people,” Jehelis continued.

She then pointed to a photo of former cast member Jimmy Fallon, who was featured on the NBC TV show from 1998 to 2004. The TikToker referred to Fallon as a “conventionally super hot guy,” along with Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, and current cast member Bowen Yang.

Although she singled out comedian Maya Rudolph as “really beautiful,” she went on to claim that the “rest of them are all pretty average looking women”. She also described Kristin Wiig as “very conventionally attractive” but not necessarily hot.

The TikToker ended her viral video by questioning whether SNL’s female cast is a reflection that “once we see women as super funny, we have a hard time seeing them as also both sexy and attractive”.

However, it didn’t take long for people to chime in on her controversial take. A clip of the TikTok was reposted to X, formerly Twitter, where it received 8.4m views - and even caught the attention of SNL cast member Sarah Sherman.

Sherman, who also goes by Sarah Squirm, replied to the post on X with a sarcastic response: “Just found out I’m not hot. Please give me and my family space to grieve privately and uglily at this time.”

Meanwhile, newcomer Chloe Troast - who joined SNL for its 49th season - jokingly responded to the video with an amusing rendition of “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera.

Unsurprisingly, thousands of internet users took the opportunity to educate the TikToker on the many talented women who’ve been featured on SNL over the years.

“Cecily Strong is SO hot idk what you’re talking about,” one person commented under the TikTok video.

“Ego Nwodim is literally drop dead gorgeous,” another user said.

“Abby Elliott? Nasim Pedrad? Chloe Fineman??” a third TikToker wrote, while someone else echoed: “Kate McKinnon??!!! Melissa Villaseñor?! Amy Poehler?!?? Kristen Wiig?!!! HelloOoOo.”

Most recently, Saturday Night Live drew criticism from viewers following actor Sydney Sweeney’s hosting debut. In one skit, the Euphoria star portrayed a Hooters waitress receiving a ton of tips from male customers who found her attractive - as many people called out SNL for centering some sketches on Sweeney’s body.

However, Sweeney’s appearance also received attention from right-wing commentators declaring that “Wokeness is dead” while Canada’s National Post asked: “Are Sydney Sweeney’s breasts double-D harbingers of the death of woke?”

In response, the White Lotus star addressed the many “weird” comments people made about her body following her hosting gig. In an interview with Variety published on 18 March, Sweeney admitted that the constant remarks make her feel like she has “no control” over online discourse about her own appearance.

“I see it, and I just can’t allow myself to have a reaction. I don’t know how to explain it - I’m still trying to figure it out myself,” she told the outlet, when asked about the viral reaction to her SNL debut.

“People feel connected and free to be able to speak about me in whatever way they want, because they believe that I’ve signed my life away. That I’m not on a human level anymore, because I’m an actor. That these characters are for everybody else, but then me as Sydney is not for me anymore,” Sweeney said. “It’s this weird relationship that people have with me that I have no control or say over.”