What makes good satire? The answer might vary depending on who you ask. What is more unifying, however, is what doesn’t. Most would agree it’s things like punching down, cheap jokes, obviousness or, worst of all, failing to actually be funny.
We saw a unique combination of all of the above last weekend, when the American live sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) attempted to parody the hit HBO series The White Lotus, setting it among current White House staff. Alongside middling caricatures of Donald Trump and the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the pre-recorded skit portrayed the English actor Aimee Lou Wood, who has a gap between her teeth, and her character from the show, Chelsea, as uncharacteristically stupid, with bulging eyes and buck teeth.
