‘Saturday Night Live UK’ aims to take a comedy hit across the pond. The first verdicts are in

Tina Fey attends the American Museum of Natural History's Museum Gala on Nov. 30, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File) 2026-03-22T13:23:55Z LONDON (AP) — “Saturday Night Live” has crossed the pond with a mild splash. A British offshoot of the 51-year-old U.S. comedy institution has debuted to generally positive reviews, defying doomsayers who doubted the show would survive the trans-Atlantic journey. The format of the first episode of “Saturday Night Live UK” stuck closely to the U.S. original. The 75-minute show opened with a skit showing Prime Minister Keir Starmer seeking help from a Gen Z adviser about how to talk to President Donald Trump, before the proclamation: “Live from London, it’s Saturday night!” “SNL” veteran Tina Fey was the host, taking questions during her opening monologue from celebrity audience members Michael Cera, Graham Norton and “Bridgerton” star Nicola Coughlan, who jokingly warned Fey that “British people tend to root for the failure of others.” Certainly, many in Britain had predicted the show would fail, and reviews expressed surprise that it was — largely — pretty funny. The Telegraph newspaper called it “shockingly competent” and “occasionally hilarious.” There was widespread praise for the cast of largely little-known comics: George Fouracres, Hammed Animashaun, Ayoade Bamgboye, Larry Dean, Celeste Dring, Ania Magliano, Annabel Marlow, Al Nash, Jack Shep, Emma Sidi and Paddy Young. As in the original, the show featured topical comedy, offbeat sketches, fake commercials and the “Weekend Update” spoof of the news, as well as a guest musical act, the English band Wet Leg. Some of the humor was mildly edgy, including jokes about pedophiles, the Epstein files and disgraced royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Apart from the accents, one difference from the American original was the expletives. British broadcasting rules allowed for a liberal sprinkling of F-words. Since its debut in 1975 “SNL” has become a pop-cu

原文链接: AP News