This past weekend was busy – there was a new Saturday Night Live episode, plus the NAACP Image Awards and the SAG Awards happened on consecutive nights. Hanging over all three of those events was what happened at the BAFTAs two Sundays ago, when John Davidson, a man with Tourette’s, loudly ticced during the show. Michael B. Jordan, Delroy Lindo and Hannah Beachler were called the n-word in front of their colleagues and peers, and BAFTA and the BBC are still pointing fingers and trying to dodge accountability for their many f–kups. Well, American comedians did what they do best: tried to find a way to joke about the BAFTA fiasco. This was a skit on Saturday Night Live:
I thought this joke was fine, funny and perhaps even low-hanging fruit. That’s been the unspoken fear of a lot of people since the BAFTA fiasco – that Tourette’s would be “used” as an excuse whenever a celebrity f–ked up and said something racist or offensive. People were literally making Morgan Wallen jokes hours after the BAFTAs (Wallen also screamed the n-word, but does not have Tourette’s). The “joke” isn’t “hahaha, lets bully people with Tourette’s.” The joke is: people who do not have Tourette’s will now claim to have it when they f–k up. Well, this went over poorly with Tourette’s activists, who suddenly understand the concept of “impact” after refusing to acknowledge it during any and all conversations about what happened at the BAFTAs.
Saturday Night Live‘s send-up of the BAFTA racial slur incident has proved to be no laughing matter for a leading Tourette’s syndrome charity. In a statement shared with Deadline, Tourettes Action, which has supported campaigner John Davidson and the film I Swear since its release last year, decried SNL‘s intervention.
In the PSA-style skit titled ‘Tourette’s,’ a host of celebrities, including J.K. Rowling, Mel Gibson, Armie Hammer, Louis C.K., and Bill Cosby claim they suffer from Tourette’s, which would explain problematic comments or actions they have been involved in.
“I’m Mel Gibson, and as I probably should have pointed out decades ago, I too, suffer from Tourette’s, which explains a lot of the things I’ve said or yelled through the years,” said the Braveheart star, portrayed by Andrew Dismukes.
Tourettes Action CEO Emma McNally was unambiguous in her thoughts on SNL, turning on capslock in her email to Deadline: “THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.”
She continued: “Mocking a disability is never acceptable. It would not be tolerated for any other condition, and it should not be tolerated by people with Tourette’s. Tourette’s is a complex neurological condition, of which there is no cure. It is not a joke. It is not a personality trait. It is not a source of entertainment. It is a condition that can be extremely debilitating, causing pain isolation and huge amounts of discrimination. Videos and posts that deliberately misrepresent or sensationalise tics set us back years. A single video can undo the progress our community has spent years building toward greater awareness.”
McNally continued: “The trolling and harassment members of our community have endured in the past few days has been horrific. People have been targeted with threats and humiliation simply for having a condition they did not choose. No one should ever be treated that way.”
NAACP Image Awards host Deon Cole has also been slammed for his joke about Davidson over the weekend. Leading the NAACP audience in mock prayer, he said: “If there are any white men out here in the audience, Lord, with Tourette’s. I advise you to tell them they’d better read the room tonight, Lord … Whatever medicine they on, they better double up on it.”
Watch the SNL skit again – do you consider that mocking the disability, or are they mocking the celebrities who have been caught out doing racist, predatory and/or cannibal bullsh-t? To me, it’s mocking Mel Gibson, Jill Zarin, Bill Cosby and Armie Hammer. What’s more, I’m absolutely certain that the INTENTION of SNL’s writers was to make fun of those terrible celebrities. When John Davidson ticced the n-word at Delroy Lindo, Michael B. Jordan and Hannah Beachler, these same “Tourette’s experts” insisted that intent was all that mattered. In essence, if Davidson had no intent to utter racist slurs, then no one could feel the impact of his words and no apologies were owed. SNL’s intent was to send up terrible racists, cannibals and Bill Cosby, therefore no one from the Tourette’s community should feel the impact of the skit and no apologies are owed. See how that works? Instead, we’ve got a bunch of British people screaming at Americans that “impact” is only for white people.
Here’s the “joke” from the Image Awards. Again, the intent is different when you consider that this was literally an awards show for and by the Black community. Just a general note for nosy British people: stay out of Black folks’ business.
Deon Cole: "If there are any white men in the room with Tourette's, I advise you to tell them to read the room, lord. It might not go the way they thinketh." pic.twitter.com/5lzzrdOKED
— IG: olesoul57.2 ♉️ 5/12 (@olesoul57_2) March 1, 2026
Screencap courtesy of SNL.
I saw both. At no time did I think it was a slam against people with Tourettes.
I watched half of it and then clicked away because I felt like it was mocking the disability more than the celebrities. That could have been avoided with a better setup.
I thought I saw where it was going early on, but when Kenan popped on screen with that sweater I had enough. It could’ve worked had they kept it to people who say out of pocket things rather than you know…drugging women and SAing them. For decades.
Really though, it’s the BAFTAs that deserve all the smoke. They put the mic in front of the man. They failed to edit it. That was aaaallllllll on them.
I don’t think they were mocking the disability
I don’t either. These folks are being hypocritical. Straw man argument, and all that. Thank you Kaiser.
I don’t believe they were slamming Tourette’s it was slamming people hiding behind Tourette’s that they don’t have.
“ Mocking a disability is never acceptable. It would not be tolerated for any other condition…”
Talk to a person with autism. The prejudice against them hasn’t disappeared. For example, if you read teacher message boards, there’s a shocking lack of empathy for these students in their classes.
Speaking as a teacher who doesn’t post on message boards myself, I’ll venture a guess that message boards are a place to vent. The lack of empathy most likely comes from the lack of resources to manage the real disruptions these students can cause in a classroom. When everything is placed on teachers—mainstreaming all students, huge class sizes, standardized tests and performance expectations, and no help or support for students with any type of neurodivergence, and no training to manage neurodivergence, the poor teachers left trying to manage the best they can. I teach in an ideal situation and even that can be a grind. The day in and day out grind of teaching a class with vulnerable children with differing levels of ability and need without the resources to do so is soul crushing. Teachers have to be able to shout into the void. Please show them some grace.
Eh. I get the need for places to vent but as someone with undiagnosed autism all through childhood (I’m a girl so no surprise there), most of my teachers didn’t shout into the void, they took every opportunity to publicly humiliate me in front of my classmates.
I did go to a conversative parochial school, so that may have had something to do with it, idk.
I did not think the SNL skit was mocking Tourette’s. It was mocking people who say racist and other horrible sh-t with zero excuse and little consequence, folks more deserving of the anger. Hi, Mel Gibson.
That’s how I saw it as well
Any joke that is about a disability, no matter the intent, is going to cause controversy. Both the SNL skit and the Deon Cole joke were funny but I’m sure they expected blowback. That’s kind of the goal with comedy. Being somewhat offensive is often the objective. But now these Tourette’s activists who were so insistent that no apologies were owed after Davidson yelled the n word at two Black men and a Black woman should understand that what you say can be very hurtful even if you didn’t intend to hurt. Apparently, they still don’t get it so I pretty much don’t care what they think anymore. My empathy is for those who have the condition not the performative activists who are not really helping them.
Since everything is now propaganda, I’d like to examine what could possibly be the purpose of this propagandistic story being kept on life support and perpetuated throughout the Murdoch-control media vacuum we must now assume we’re living in?
From all evidence I have, “somebody” purposely placed this guy with a well-known case of Tourette’s closer to a microphone than seems prudent. And then after he screamed out this slur several times, “somebody” decided to air it despite a two-hour delay that should have made it an nonstarter. But that didn’t happen, did it? For some reason this entirely preventable event happened, and despite WWIII having been recently launched by a demented mafia boss, this somehow story is somehow being kept alive.
Everybody in charge says it wasn’t their fault, but “somebody” let this play out, and “somebody” is now keeping this story alive. Who could possibly be benefiting from flooding the airwaves with this disabled person screaming the n-word from the audience at two well-known actors while they were stage? Who was benefiting while millions of people clicked on all the articles and videos about the incident? And who now is benefiting by keeping this story alive while the US bombs little girls? It’s all so strange to me.
Let’s not forget that the last time the fascists took charge, the first group of people they locked up and murdered with the public’s full knowledge and consent were the disabled.
I think it was quite clear that the joke was on abominable people saying abominable things looking to grasp at straws to excuse their abominable actions. I also think the skit will help to propagate the ignorant belief that the actions of people with Tourettes are a choice. The situation (and this article) are just sad.
I don’t see anything wrong with the SNL skit they were making fun of the terrible celebrities. Perhaps if Tourettes Action had more empathy for those impacted by the slur and understood why people were upset last week, the skit wouldn’t been made. The same goes for the joke at the Image awards.
I agree. That’s what I got from both performances as well.
My teen has Tourette (or TS, no longer do we say Tourette’s or Tourette’s Syndrome) and I am well aware TS has LONG been a punching bag for the entertainment industry, obviously including the BAFTAs and SNL. I agree the placement of John Davidson was super problematic and a set up for “something”; it’s so hard to watch coprolalia (which is just one manifestation or symptom or type of tic) getting so much airtime when TS is a complex universe of neurodiversities, with a big overlap with autism BTW. Only about 10% of people diagnosed with TS ever experience coprolalia. People with TS shouldn’t be punchlines period and the BAFTAs should have taken precautions with Davidson; and SNL should have thought twice about that skit. It truly was punching down at a group of people with disabilities who do not need to be associated with lowlifes like those named even “in jest”.
Henny Penny’s post speaks to me. Funny business here…
‘Just a general note for nosy British people: stay out of Black folks’ business’. Some Brits are Black folks. A few of those folks might even be nosy.