Aimee Lou Wood objected to the way Saturday Night Live caricatured her The White Lotus character Chelsea—not to Sarah Sherman personally. Wood said the April 12, 2025 sketch made her appearance the joke with an exaggerated-teeth gag, which she found mean and unfunny.
What happened in the ‘White Potus’ sketch?
The April 12, 2025 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Jon Hamm, included a prerecorded sketch called “The White Potus.” It placed political figures in the setting and style of HBO’s The White Lotus. Sarah Sherman played Chelsea, the character Wood portrays in the show’s third season, using exaggerated teeth and an accent. The gag followed a line about removing fluoride from drinking water. Variety and the Los Angeles Times reported on the sketch and Wood’s response.
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Why did Wood call the portrayal mean and unfunny?
Wood said the exaggerated-teeth joke turned her appearance into the target. In an Instagram Story reported by the Los Angeles Times, she wrote, “I have big gap teeth not bad teeth.” She also felt that while the rest of the sketch was “punching up,” she and Chelsea were treated as the one target being “punched down on.”
Her objection was to the joke’s execution, not to comedy or caricature as such. Wood said she accepts being mocked when it is done cleverly and in good spirits. As Variety reported, she wrote: “Yes, take the piss for sure – that’s what the show is about- but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way?”
Was Wood criticizing Sarah Sherman?
No. Wood clarified that she was “Hating on the concept,” not Sherman personally, as Vanity Fair reported. Sherman later said she had been excited to play Chelsea because the character was iconic, and that she never intended to hurt anyone. “I feel terrible that anyone would feel bad,” Sherman said in comments reported by Variety.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Did SNL apologize to Aimee Lou Wood?
Wood said she had received apologies from SNL, according to Variety. That is her account of the apologies: the Los Angeles Times reported that an SNL representative did not immediately respond to its request for comment. The cited contemporaneous coverage did not include a public confirmation from the show.
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