Michael Che Responds to Cultural Appropriation Backlash Over ‘Gen Z Hospital’ Sketch in Now Deleted Post

Leia IdlibyMay 11th, 2021, 3:44 pm
 

While news that Elon Musk was set to host Saturday Night Live drew swift backlash — the episode was relatively uncontroversial, aside from one sketch that some slammed as cultural appropriation.

The sketch, titled “Gen Z Hospital” featured Musk as a doctor delivering bad news to a group of stereotypical Gen Z-ers regarding their friend, who was referred to as “bestie” throughout.

SNL cast members Kate McKinnon, Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, and Bowen Yang played teens awaiting news about their injured love one — often using terms such as “go off, king,” “sis,” “gang, gang,” “stan,” “bruh,” and “no cap.”

While meant to poke fun at Gen Z jargon, some viewers noted that the majority of the terms are used in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), and accused the sketch of cultural appropriation.

Activist and speaker Wagatwe Wanjuki, wrote that, “It’s been weird as hell to see AAVE treated as a Gen Z language,” while others accused the sketch of mocking AAVE instead of Gen Z vernacular.

Che, who wrote the sketch but did not appear in it, responded to the backlash in a series of Instagram posts, writing, “I’ve been reading about how my ‘gen z’ sketch was misappropriating AAVE and I was stunned cause what the f**k 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…”

Che went on to note that while “the sketch bombed,” he “meant no offense to the ‘aave’ community,” adding, “I love aave. Aave to the moon!”

The comedian has since deleted the posts addressing the criticism, along with another post thanking those who tuned into That Damn Michael Che while blasting media outlets for ignoring the positive attention his new comedy series has received:

“Whenever I say something off color, or controversial, it’s written about and picked apart by every media outlet,” he wrote. “But when I make a show that people like, (particularly black people), those same outlets wont mention it.”

Watch the sketch above, via YouTube.

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