A few months ago, I wrote about watching Saturday Night Live with my daughter and how great the experience has been so far. Well, when the debut episode of Saturday Night Live UK dropped on Peacock, I decided that since there was no new episode of the regular show this week, we could see what the new spin from across the pond was all about. I was about to find out that, unlike the American version, the rules over there are a lot more lax when it comes to what you can say on TV at night.
Turns out there’s this thing in the U.K. called the watershed, where pretty much anything goes after 9 p.m. This means the show can have swearing, cussing, cursing, or any other description for foul language on the airwaves. That being said, I was about to find out just how filthy-mouthed the show could be… the hard way.
As Soon As Tina Fey Cussed In The Opening Monologue, I Got A Bad Feeling
Though things were kept mild throughout the cold open and the first two minutes of Tina Fey’s opening monologue (shortly before Graham Norton came in as the ringer), it took a turn when Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan asked why a British actor or comedian wasn’t hosting the first episode. When Fey responded with “none of you f---ers would do it,” I went, “Oh, no,” and immediately looked at my wife with a “What have we done?” kind of expression on my face.
As the SNL alum would explain to a confused Michael Cera (he was also in the audience), this version of the show has cussing. And boy, does it have a lot of it. As I was about to be reminded multiple times over the course of the next hour and change.
Between Hamnet and ‘Boovies Goes To The Films,’ The Hits (And Swear Words) Kept Coming
The debut episode of Saturday Night Live UK was full of hilarious bits that were memorable for both their humor and the foul language. From the outrageous Hamnet skit poking fun at William Shakespeare’s eagerness to run back off to London and leave his family behind, only to return with a “c---y little earring,” to the hilariously vulgar “Boovers Goes to the Films” segment with all its F-bombs, I was laughing as much as I was trying to cover my daughter’s ears. It was in vain, but at least the jokes were good.
Though my daughter has heard worse language coming from my mouth while trying to navigate a certain highway in a certain Midwestern city, it was a bit shocking to hear this coming from a TV show that wasn’t on HBO.
Though there was enough swearing to fill up a jar of marmalade from that absolutely bonkers Paddington sketch, watching Saturday Night Live UK was loads of fun. The premiere is streaming with a Peacock subscription, where you’ll be able to watch future episodes each Sunday through the rest of the show’s freshman season.
