“Legend! LEDGE-END!” shout Sarah Sherman and James Austin Johnson in unison during a Saturday Night Live sketch lampooning the Gallagher brothers.
I rub my temples and feel a headache coming on. “How long is this skit?” I think, wearily.
Over the next three minutes and 16 seconds, the two comedians push each other, stick out their tongues and fluff up what are, admittedly, quite accurate wigs.
There’s a joke about the Spice Girls. One about Bend It Like Beckham. Then, mercifully, it ends.
Call him dour if you like, but it’s safe to say that Liam wasn’t a fan. “Are they meant to be comedians?” he asked at the time.
Listening to Sherman’s ‘Liam’ I picked up a hint of Kylie, a dash of Mick Jagger and a soupson of Don Corleone. Even the most tin-eared would have to admit, it was rubbish.
The feuding Gallagher brothers will always be ripe for satire, but why do Americans insist on doing such rubbish Manc accents?
Undeterred by Liam’s derision, the SNL gang ploughed on and last weekend attempted an impression of another Manc star - Stockport’s Aimee Lou Wood.
Once again, it was down to Sarah Sherman to flex her Mancunian accent while dressed as Wood’s character Chelsea in The White Lotus.
“What’s fluoride?” she asks in ‘The White Potus’ sketch, while wearing a pair of ludicrous fake teeth and revealing the most outrageous British accent since Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.
A slew of headlines and think pieces followed after Wood dubbed the chronically lame sketch ‘mean and unfunny’. She’s absolutely right, of course.
After turning in a phenomenal performance on The White Lotus, it must be depressing and exhausting to be repeatedly faced with comments about your appearance. The conversation about her gap teeth has been never-ending since the first episode aired.
As she told Jonathan Ross: “I can’t believe the impact my teeth are having. The Americans can’t believe it. But they’ve all been lovely.”
Not so lovely was the decision by SNL writers to parody Wood with exaggerated prosthetic teeth. If ‘The White Potus’ sketch was an attempt at political satire, why add in a cheap shot about a woman’s looks?
Wood’s teeth give her a unique beauty most people would kill for. By calling out SNL for punching down, she’s sticking up for anyone who doesn’t adhere to conventional beauty standards.
It’s fair to say Wood is the runaway star of the latest series of The White Lotus. Her Stopfordian accent cut through the melange of American drawls like butter. Hearing her cheekily exclaim ‘you slag’ in a show full of ‘assholes’ and ‘god dammits’ was a tonic.
In truth, Mancs love a bit of micky taking - it’s part of our language. So we’d be happy for SNL to try again. But next time, make sure it’s not needlessly cruel. And maybe try making it funny.
