SNL: UK Might Be Better Than Its American Predecessor Right Now

SNL: UK recently returned for its second series (not season, sorry, Yanks.) After an unexpectedly successful launch earlier this year, the show has gone from strength to strength, with its cast and writers seeming more confident in their work and less constrained by the unbearable weight of the brand. A lot of Americans seemed surprised to hear that us Brits had our own version of the legendary live sketch comedy show that has been a part of the pop culture zeitgeist for decades. Many of them were also shocked to see that it’s actually very funny. Dare I say it, but America, you have some catching up to do.

Various sketches have gone viral on social media, most notably their version of Weekend Update. Hosted by Paddy Young and Ania Magliano—the latter of whom you may recognize from Taskmaster—the news jokes of the week have been aiming high and taking no prisoners. Of the Easter holidays, Young, who has perfected the Blue Steel gaze of come-hither hosting, said it was “the time of year where we celebrate the only murdered Palestinian we’re allowed to talk about.” Regarding a lost bag of guns left on the streets of London by several Met officers, Magliano joked, “I feel sorry for the police. Sometimes, you’re so busy killing women that you forget where you left your bloody machine guns. What am I like?!”

Most viral of all was their response to Ed Sheeran’s cowardice over Macklemore being dropped from his tour over his pro-Palestine comments. “Corpsemaxxer” Robert Kraft was mocked for supporting Israel and being an Epstein associate, while Sheeran was mercilessly ribbed for his hypocrisy. Regarding his claims of not taking political sides while also supporting Ukraine, Young said, “Say what you want about Ed, but he’s always been a passionate advocate of causes that are allowed.” It was nervy stuff, pointed and with a clear stance. The bar might be in hell, but still, hearing this kind of f*ck you to power under the banner of Saturday Night Live was fascinating. Everyone knew that the Americans would never go there, a suspicion that was confirmed when their Weekend Update on the topic, which was accompanied by audience cheers for Macklemore (much to the annoyance of Michael Che), made him the butt of the weak joke.

When SNL: UK was announced, I was convinced it’d be a disaster. Why did British comedy need to remake a show that was so well-worn and stifled by the dictatorial rule of Lorne Michaels? It seemed like an ill fit for a country with its own rich history of both political satire and sketch comedy. And yet here we are, with the Brits excelling while their transatlantic cousins flounder. SNL has always been erratic, but when it’s bad, it’s unwatchable. It’s a series forever burdened by its mighty legacy, and its evolution hindered by an ageing showrunner who clings to power like a U.S. senator who has to be puppeted by harried aides into voting the right way. Nobody believes in the capital-I Importance of SNL more than Michaels (except for maybe Donald Trump, and even he doesn’t rage-post about it as often as he used to.) Yet that inflated ego hasn’t led to a steelier approach. SNL was never Brass Eye but in 2026 it feels especially timid, ill-equipped for the moment it claims to lead. Could you imagine Colin Jost straight-up calling Benjami Netanyahu a war criminal?

I don’t mean to be hyperbolic. SNL: UK is certainly not succeeding on all levels all the time. By nature of its sketch comedy-slash-contemporary commentary status, it’s as erratic as that setup would suggest. While the cold opens are often spikier than what the Rockefeller Center residents are pulling off, they’re still hindered by questionable impressions and awkward casting choices. British politics, perhaps mercifully, isn’t as dominated by distinctive personalities that can easily be parodied, and you can practically see the writers straining to find clear notes to play week after week for people like Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham (with the latter, they’ve mostly settled on “Northern”.) The show is on far surer ground when it’s permitted to be weirder, more particular, and, yes, painfully British.

The funniest SNL: UK sketches are the ones I struggle to explain to non-Brits. A recreation of an early-2010s finale of The X Factor had me howling with its specificities. George Fouracres’s 45-second monologue is a bizarre blend of Reeves & Mortimer, Monty Python, and drunk uncle at a wake. A grimy docudrama provides a horror film origin story for Mr. Blobby that includes a scathing political dig. A parody of The Traitors featured a great big crab man to call out the show’s racial bias. They’re complete sketches with fully thought-out perspectives. Again, the bar is low, but how many times have you watched an SNL skit and wondered if the writers ran out of time or simply gave up?

Right now, SNL: UK feels young and vibrant, unbound by the need to be Important or guide the narrative of political and cultural discourse. It gets to be its own very British thing and let a bunch of young comics run wild in a way that’s become increasingly rare thanks to arts funding cuts and the decline of Peak TV. I actually look forward to watching the show every week because the laughs are guaranteed, as is a fresh perspective, and I don’t get that with the American original right now, a stray sketch here or there notwithstanding. There’s something to be said about freeing oneself from the expectations of so-called legacy. Well, that and having a spine.