SNL UK: How one comedy sketch may have just changed everything for Cynthia Erivo - The Independent
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On Saturday night, Cynthia Erivo took the world by surprise. As the host of SNL UK, she performed a sketch, “Nigerian Wicked”, which has already racked up more than 5 million views on YouTube alone, and is on track to be the most-watched skit of the entire series.
A parody of low-budget Nollywood films, it saw her as Glinda, strutting down a yellow brick road in “Lag-Oz” in a highly flammable pink top and skinny jeans, headed for the Wizard in the hopes of securing a Birkin bag. SNL star Ayoade Bamgboye (the sketch’s writer) was by her side as Elphaba, looking for a BBL that defies gravity.
The sketch sent social media wild. Fans called it “the funniest thing” SNL UK has ever done and hailed Erivo – credited under her full name of Cynthia Onyedinmanasu Chinasaokwu Owezuke Amarachukwu Echeumuna Erivo – as a comedic genius who’s clearly game for a laugh.
It must be a refreshing reception for the Wicked star, who found herself at the eye of a rather intense – and critical – media storm during the film’s promotional trail. With the movie musical being released in two parts in 2024 and 2025, Erivo and her co-star, Ariana Grande, spent two years navigating emotionally charged junkets and red carpets, with their close friendship generating an endless stream of memes from fans hungry for a narrative.
Over the course of the tour, it stopped being a surprise when either one of the stars (or even both) would burst into tears during an interview. They would often be seen clutching each other, and gushing over a journalist simply turning up to interview them. “You have been the light of the day,” a wide-eyed Grande told a reporter from PinkNews who’d revealed it had been their first-ever junket. “You are such a gift.” In another bizarre moment that spawned a zillion memes, one journalist cryptically told the pair that fans were “holding space” with the lyrics of “Defying Gravity”, to which a visibly touched Erivo responded: “I didn’t know that that was happening. That’s really powerful. That’s what I wanted.” Comforting her co-star, Grande clasped just one of Erivo’s fingers. Unsurprisingly, puzzled fans picked apart the junket moment – made even funnier by both Erivo and Grande later admitting that they had no clue what the interviewer meant by “holding space”.
The coverage of their relationship, viewed as “codependent” by fans, reached a new level last November during the Wicked: For Good red carpet, when a fan jumped over the barricade to grab Grande and Erivo stepped in to block him. She was praised for being Grande’s “bodyguard” and “protector” – which the Tony Award-winning actor later took issue with. “I think that we haven’t really come to terms with the insidious nature of how we view Black women,” she told Variety in May this year. “And I’m sure people will read this and think, ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, it’s not about that.’ But it is. Because that’s what was being made fun of. It was my physique; it was my shape; it was the fact that I was bald; it was about what I looked like.”
Despite the validity of Erivo’s point, it didn’t help that the memeification of the Wicked press tour generally appeared to be a touchy subject for her, even once the dust had settled around the films. When asked about fans trying to recreate the viral “holding space” moment with her, Erivo stated: “I hate it. I don’t want anyone holding my finger.” Earlier this year, she even shut down questions about Wicked during an interview with Variety, after being asked to recreate her iconic “Defying Gravity” riff. “No,” she said, “Oh, we’re really trying to get one from Wicked, aren’t we?”
Erivo had emerged from the Wicked press tornado with a reputation for being a dedicated, Oscar-nominated actor, but a seemingly humourless one. While those familiar with her early work (cameos in Chewing Gum, Broad City and a guest judge stint on Drag Race) knew this not to be true, it was easy for others who had discovered her through Wicked to draw that conclusion. That was until last weekend – when Erivo poked fun at all of those assumptions during her wildly successful SNL UK stint. “For some reason there’s a perception that I’m very serious, but I’m actually very silly and daft,” she said, deadpan in her opening monologue. “It just doesn't show on my face.” Then she admitted she’s secretly a huge fan of Bake Off, but fears her long nails might get in the way of being on the show. “Making cake batter with one nail, chopping my butter with the other. Noel’s telling me I’ve got 30 seconds left and Alison keeps laughing. It’s not funny, Hammond.”
An hour later, viewers who’d seen Erivo take on “Nigerian Wicked”, sing about the power of her vagina in a Charli XCX parody and play half of an eccentric bird-watching couple with cast member Freddie Meredith were under no illusion that she took herself too seriously. Taking to Instagram afterwards, Erivo described her time on the show as “one of the best weeks of my life”.
The show didn’t just show off Erivo’s comedic chops though – it also proved just how SNL UK can become an important cog in the press machine. Aimee Lou Wood had already somewhat demonstrated this in series one: after her teeth were mocked by SNL in the US in an unfunny White Lotus sketch, Wood took control of the joke by hosting the UK version, and even made light of it in an advert for the episode.
So while SNL UK’s initial series two hosting line-up (Jeff Goldblum, Jamie Demetriou and Amelia Dimoldenberg) suggested that producers had slightly struggled to attract star power, perhaps this tide-turning Erivo show will have stars queuing up to host. You could say, in fact, that both Erivo and SNL UK have been changed for good…
