The 'True Detective' actor, who hosts the popular show for his fifth time, references his controversial stance on vaccination and the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Feb 27, 2023
AceShowbiz - Woody Harrelson landed in hot water for his opening monologue in the Saturday, February 25 episode of "Saturday Night Live". In the episode, the "True Detective" actor, who took to the stage for his fifth time as "SNL" host, talked about his controversial stance on vaccination and the COVID-19 pandemic while delivering a long story about the "craziest script" he's ever read.
"So the movie goes like this," Woody said. "The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes. And people can only come out if they take the cartel's drugs and keep taking them over and over."
He continued, "I threw the script away. I mean, who was going to believe that crazy idea? Being forced to do drugs? I do that voluntarily all day."
After watching the monologue, some viewers took to Twitter to blast the show and Woody for the controversial monologue. "Thank you, @nbcsnl, for Woody Harrelson's insipid anti-vax monologue," producer Lee Goldberg tweeted in a now-deleted post. "Who are going to have guest host next week, Scott Adams?"
Comedian and podcast host Ashley Ray also criticized the monologue. "rant makes it sound like he did it randomly without permission when this definitely sounds like a thing that was written and on cue cards," she wrote.
Another critic said, "It's not just some harmless view given the disinformation and a platform like SNL should know better." Someone added, "What on earth was this anti-vax nonsense." Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Elon Musk appeared to love Woody's jokes and praised him for being brave as he said, "So based. Nice work."
This wasn't the first time for Woody to receive backlash over his conspiracy theories related to the coronavirus pandemic. In an interview with Vanity Fair, the "Now You See Me" actor dubbed the mask-wearing "absurd," adding that he hasn't gotten COVID-19 because he's "internally clean." The actor additionally took to Instagram to share his opinion on the 5G networks, which he believed was responsible for COVID-19 spread, though he deleted it later.
