{"id":382587,"date":"2026-04-05T03:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382587\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T03:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:13:09","slug":"riz-ahmed-takes-aim-at-british-during-opening-monologue-on-snl-u-k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382587\/","title":{"rendered":"Riz Ahmed Takes Aim at British During Opening Monologue on ‘SNL U.K.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRiz Ahmed<\/a> took aim at the British during his opening monologue as host on \u201cSaturday Night Live U.K.\u201d on April 4. \u201cWe like it when things are a little bit crap,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tAhmed started with a dig at his own eclectic credit list: \u201cI\u2019m an actor, I\u2019m a writer, I\u2019m a producer, and I\u2019m a rapper. So for those of you who don\u2019t know who I am, clearly, neither do I. I\u2019m working it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe referenced his Oscar-nominated performance in \u201cSound of Metal,\u201d and his part as a terrorist in the comedy \u201cFour Lions,\u201d as well as his latest starring role in madcap TV comedy show \u201cBait.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s about an out-of-work actor auditioning to be James Bond, and the character is going through an identity crisis,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re wondering why I made a comedy about someone having an identity crisis, look at me, man, I\u2019m confused. It\u2019s not my fault. I grew up in Wembley, but I went to Oxford University, and that\u2019s why I sound like this, like a mix between Stormzy and [former British Prime Minister] Rishi Sunak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe then took a swipe at his fellow Brits. \u201cSometimes I feel like the whole nation is having this identity crisis, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re so divided, right? We\u2019re divided over politics, over the climate, over the Beckhams. I think that I know how to solve it. I think I can solve Britain\u2019s identity crisis. I think there\u2019s one thing that unites us all, in essence. What makes us British is we like it when things are a little bit crap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYes, we like giving crap compliments. You know, someone says he\u2019s a bit of a character, that means you\u2019re a knob [British slang for a dick]. We like sports that are a bit crap. Cricket can go on for five days and still be a draw. And we like giving gifts that are a bit crap [\u2026] We celebrate when things are a bit crap. We literally cheer when someone drops their pint glass in the pub.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAhmed recently told the Guardian, \u201cThe dream is to be a standup comedian, but everyone who knows me says, \u2018Please don\u2019t do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actor appeared in several sketches during the show, including one that mocked contestants on the British version of \u201cThe Traitors,\u201d who repeatedly voted to kick out people of color.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first-ever season of the British twist on the U.S. comedy staple \u201cSNL<\/a>\u201d kicked off on March 21 with host Tina Fey and musical guest Wet Leg.<\/p>\n

\n\tBritish comedian Jack Whitehall will host the April 11 episode with R&B artist Jorja Smith as the musical guest.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series, which is set to run for eight episodes, will then take a weeklong hiatus and return for its next batch of shows starting April 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Riz Ahmed took aim at the British during his opening monologue as host on \u201cSaturday Night Live U.K.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,98919,15824,162455,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-382587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-riz-ahmed","12":"tag-snl","13":"tag-snl-u-k","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}