Amy Poehler on SNL: ‘We All Played People That We Should Not Have Played’

When Amy Poehler speaks, you listen. Not just because she’s smart, sharp, and the co-host of your dream dinner party alongside Tina Fey, but because she’s right. Recently, Poehler looked back at her time on Saturday Night Live and admitted what many of us have thought during reruns. 

SNL has been a comedy institution for nearly five decades. It’s launched careers of comedic icons, shaped political satire, and given us enough impersonations of politicians to have something to talk about with our officemates during coffee break. But along the way, there have been some skits that should have been left in the writers’ room. 

In a recent appearance on her Good Hang podcast with Will Forte (via Variety), Poehler revealed that every comedian who appeared on SNL has “played people that we should not have played.” She also realized “the part about getting older and being in comedy is you have to, like, figure out, ‘Oh, it’s like everything has an expiration date.’” 

She added, “There was even on [‘SNL50’], 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. We all played people that we should not have played. I misappropriated, I appropriated…I didn’t know.” 

Poehler also said that “the best thing you can do is make repairs, learn from your mistakes, do better. It’s all you can do.” 

SNL recently made a skit making fun of Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth. The White Lotus actress took offense and posted on her Instagram story calling it to be “mean and unfunny.” She added, “Such a shame cuz I had such a great time watching it a couple weeks ago. Yes, take the piss for sure - that’s what the show is about- but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way.” 

Wood clarified that she’s “not thin skinned” and that she “actually love being taken the piss out of when it’s clever and in good spirits. But the joke was about fluoride. I have big gap teeth not bad teeth. I don’t mind caricature- I understand that’s what SNL is. But the rest of the skit was punching up and I/ Chelsea was the only one punched down on..” 

Aside from Poehler, Bowen Yang also spoke out about some of SNL’s problematic sketch, particularly that of Wood. Yang supported Wood and called her reaction to be “completely valid.” Yang added, “You kind of forget the sort of human, emotional cost that it sort of extols on someone.”