Ayo Edebiri’s hosting turn on Saturday Night Live got a little awkward in the week leading up to the big day after comments she made about Jennifer Lopez, the woman she was sharing the SNL stage with, resurfaced. In them, she called JLo’s career “one long scam” and questioned both her singing voice and her work ethic. Well, SNL has never been a show to quietly ignore drama; so, to the surprise of no one, the popular sketch comedy show gave Edebiri an opportunity to address them in a really funny, if you know you know kind of way.
The moment in question happened during a game show called Why’d You Say It? In it, unsuspecting contestants were confronted with comments they left on Instagram and asked to explain why they said it. Edebiri’s character was asked to account for her behavior after she left a comment saying “die” on a Drew Barrymore social media post, and she gave a longer answer that addressed running her mouth on a podcast when you’re twenty-four and stupid. You can watch the entire sketch below…
The comments came on a podcast called Scam Goddess back in 2020, long before the actress rose to mainstream success on The Bear. Edebiri was talking about Jennifer Lopez with host Laci Mosley when she launched into a diatribe about JLO’s career being a scam. She questioned her singing voice and talked about her voice not being featured very prominently on many of her own tracks. The comments didn’t receive much attention at the time, but when she was announced as the SNL host with Jennifer Lopez as her musical guest, snippets of what she said starting reappearing on TMZ and other places.
Of course, it’s also worth noting that Edebiri didn’t actually apologize for anything she said in the comments, she apologized for being dumb and saying them without understanding the ramifications. That’s a clear difference and one many on social media have been picking up on. In fact, many on social media are taking clips from the ending of SNL and trying to dissect the body language to figure out if JLO is mad at Edebiri. They definitely do not hug each other like they do many others on stage, but ultimately, we have no idea what either one of them are thinking.
As one of the biggest stars in the world, Jennifer Lopez clearly has plenty of experience with people talking about her and saying unkind things. I can’t imagine you ever get entirely used to it, but I would imagine the impact has softened over the years. That being said, random Twitter users yelling about you is a little different than celebrities you’re sharing a stage with.
Regardless, Edebiri performed well as SNL host in her first opportunity, and JLO crushed it as musical guest. So, whether there’s lingering hard feelings or not, both women delivered and kept it professional.
