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upworthy

kate mckinnon

Saturday Night Live/Youtube

A TikTokker went viral for saying 'SNl" has never cast a 'hot woman." The female 'SNL' cast responded.

Recently a TikTok user who goes by Jahelis went viral for claiming “Saturday Night Live” has never hired “a hot woman” during the entire run of its show.

Well, the ladies of “SNL” caught wind of Jahelis’s insensitive remarks, and let’s just say they’re having the last laugh.

In the nearly four minute video, Jahelis clarifies “I’m not saying that every single woman who has been a cast member on SNL is ugly. It’s just that none of them have ever been, like, hot.… They all just kind of have looks that eventually grow on you.”

She then proposed the “theory” that this is because society can’t accept that “super beautiful women” can also be funny, followed by a slew of out-of-touch observations to seemingly prove this her pseudo-analysis.

Jahelis first pulled up a picture of Heidi Gardner (whom Jahelis couldn’t even name) claiming Gardner often plays the “super hot and super dumb” girl in sketches, even though “no offense, she’s not that pretty.”

Jahelis surmised this must be because “I guess technically the most conventional hot female on this cast.”

@jahelis Hoepfulky at least one person out there understands what I’m trying to say #kristinwiig #palmroyale #appletvseries #snl #snlwomen #mayarudolph #jimmyfallon ♬ original sound - Jahelis


To really drive her point home, Jahelis then went on to note that Jimmy Fallon, Andy Sandberg, Jason Sudeikis “even Bowen” Yang as “relatively hot men,” as if to suggest this injustice of hiring average looking people was one-sided.

But hey, at least she conceded that Maya Rudolph was “really beautiful.” Sadly, while Kristin Wiig “very conventionally attractive,” she still didn’t make the cut for “hot,” apparently.

It didn’t take long for the rant to make its way to actual female “SNL” cast members, who responded in rare form.

Sarah Sherman, replied on X with this tongue-in-cheek post: “Just found out I’m not hot. Please give me and my family space to grieve privately and uglily at this time.”

Meanwhile on Instagram, Chloe Troast hit back while singing Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” and not-so-subtly flipping Jahelis off with both fingers.

Other viewers also chimed in to call out Jahelis’ “random and mean” analysis, not to mention question her logic…as well as her eyesight.

“Ego Nwodim is literally drop dead gorgeous," one person commented.

“Have you SEEN CHLOE FINEMAN?! She's so gorgeous,” another said.

Other perplexed reactions include:

“Kate McKinnon??!!! Melissa Villasenor?! Amy Poehler?!?? Kristen Wig?!!! helloOoOo.”

“Kate McKinnon is unironically one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen.”

“Julia Louis Dreyfus is one of the hottest women of all time?”

And perhaps this comment really sums it all up: “normalize journaling.”

Sure, we want to be able to express ourselves, and part of TikTok’s charm is being able to give those raw, unfiltered opinions. But degrading other people to make a point is probably not the best use of the platform. Luckily, nobody took this “hot take” too seriously.

It's been 21 days.

Twenty. One. Days.

And it would take another 21 days to recap everything horrific, unacceptable, and plainly un-American that has happened since Inauguration Day.


So, instead, consider this a safe space. Give yourself permission to take a break from being angry, and check out these seven pretty awesome news stories you might have missed this week.

I'm betting you could use 'em.

1. "Hidden Figures" became the highest grossing Oscar-nominated film of the year.

The cast of "Hidden Figures." Photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

If you thought only chiseled white guys could be Hollywood moneymakers, think again.

"Hidden Figures," the incredible true story of three black women who made landmark contributions to NASA in the 1960s, was released in mid-December. So far, it's grossed over $119 million at the box office, edging out its fellow Best Picture nominees, including "La La Land."

Money talks in Hollywood, and the more proof we get that diversity in film is both the right thing to do and can be good business, the better.

2. People tried to body shame Lady Gaga after her Super Bowl performance, but even more people shut them down.

While Lady Gaga was busy wowing millions of people with her high-wire act, powerhouse vocals, and precision dance moves, a few surly folks were a little overly concerned with how her bare midriff looked.

Obnoxious comments on social media were easy to find. But Gaga fans, and most good humans in general, weren't having it.

Gaga herself, of course, took the high road.

PSA: We can drown out the hate if we all speak up for what's right together.

3. "The Magic School Bus" is coming back.

Admit it, you always wished you could be in Ms. Frizzle's class as they shrunk down to explore the inner workings of the human body or blasted off on a deep space adventure.

Well, you still can't. But soon you can enjoy all new episodes of everyone's favorite after-school show!

And the absolute best part: The brilliant Kate McKinnon, of "Saturday Night Live" fame, will voice Ms. Frizzle in a Netflix reboot set to debut later this year.

Kate McKinnon. Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images for AT&T.

This is my kind of good news.

4. Facebook just announced big changes to its family leave policy.

Do you live to work, or do you work to live? If you're like most people, there is at least one thing more important than the ol' 9 to 5: family.

So kudos to the people at Facebook who just announced some great, progressive changes to their leave policies. According to COO Sheryl Sandberg, the new policy will give employees dedicated and paid time off for grieving and caring for sick family members on top of the company's already pretty good parental leave.

There have been many times when I've been grateful to work at companies that supported families. When my son was born...

Posted by Sheryl Sandberg on Tuesday, February 7, 2017

It's great to see forward-thinking, people-first policies coming from some of our country's most influential companies.

5. A guy created an Amazon Dash button so he could easily donate $5 to the ACLU every time Donald Trump made him mad.

Hey, you know Dash buttons, right? They're the supposed shopping device of the future, making getting laundry detergent delivered to your home as easy as hitting a button above the washing machine. Or you could put a button in the mug cabinet that orders coffee the instant you run out.

Well, designer and programmer Nathan Pryor decided to take this concept to the next level and create a button he could smash every time he read a baffling tweet from President Donald Trump. Each time, it would donate $5 to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Unfortunately, this isn't an "official" thing, so not everyone can get one, but it is a great reminder to try to channel your frustration into something productive.

You can donate to the ACLU online right here, in fact.

6. Oh! And speaking of Trump, even Kanye West is turning on him now.

Kanye West and Donald Trump, former pals. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.

There are few things as disgusting as entertainment industry schmoozing that won't quit, and Trump has certainly rubbed elbows with a lot of famous people. Many of his old golf buddies and party pals still refuse to denounce him. (Looking at you, Tom Brady.)

But we can finally scratch Kanye West off that list.

Yep, even Yeezy has had enough of Trump's shit. According to TMZ, Kanye has deleted every mention of Trump from his Twitter timeline and no longer supports the current president.

I know, I know. It's Kanye and who cares, right? But while watching the country slowly become unrecognizable largely in part because none of Trump's friends and allies will stand up to him, it's hard not to be excited about any sign of pushback.

7. A review board told Comcast to stop saying it has the fastest internet: a big win for objective facts.

How is Verizon winning a case against Comcast good news? I'll tell you.

Comcast has been claiming for a while to have the fastest internet in America. Verizon had data that suggested that simply wasn't true. So the National Advertising Review Board ruled Comcast had to stop making the false claim.

Someone lied, and there were actually consequences! In 2017, how is this not good news?

Take that, "alternative facts."

Now, if only the media would start covering terror attacks.

There's bound to be great news next week, too. You just have to look a little harder for it these days. But I promise you, it's worth it!

Sarah Paulson was a standout at the 2016 Emmys.

Her roles in "American Horror Story" and "The People v. O.J. Simpson" had fans and critics alike rooting for the actress long before she even hit the red carpet.

Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.


She ended up snagging Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series for her role in the Simpson crime anthology.

As she stood on stage, Paulson publicly apologized to the real life person she portrayed on screen, Marcia Clark — the head prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

"The more I learned about the real Marcia Clark, not the two-dimensional cardboard cutout I saw on the news, but the complicated, whip-smart, giant-hearted mother of two, who woke up every day, put both feet on the floor and dedicated herself to righting an unconscionable wrong," Paulson said in her speech. "The more I had to recognize that I, along with the rest of the world, had been superficial and careless in my judgment."

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

The apology made waves across the internet for days.

But it was a different, less reported line in Paulson's speech that the actress said she was unsure about: Should she thank her girlfriend?

"Holland Taylor," she said, concluding her speech by addressing her partner. "I love you."

It was just one sentence, but it made a difference.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Paulson opened up about the double standard in straight relationships and queer ones when it comes to public affection and visibility in Hollywood, and why she wouldn't let it deter her from living honestly (emphasis added):

"In terms of my speech, I wanted to say I love you to the person I love. Everyone else does it, so should I not do it because the person I love is a woman? And so I thought, you know what? I’m just gonna do it. I wasn’t worried over it. It was a flashing thought — ‘should I do it?’ And I thought to myself, ‘The fact that I am having this thought is wrong in the first place.’ The idea that I would have to take a moment before I say this to consider what impact it might have that could be negative is an asinine thing to engage with mentally, and I refuse to do it. So I just said what I wanted to say."

Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images.

Paulson's win was celebrated as one of several big moments for LGBTQ women at the Emmys this year.

Openly queer Jill Soloway, the creator of "Transparent," won Best Directing for a Comedy Series — "Topple the patriarchy!" she yelled gleefully from the stage during her speech — while "Saturday Night Live" star Kate McKinnon, the series' first openly lesbian cast member, snagged Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Laverne Cox, who became the first transgender artist to be nominated in an acting category last year, also presented the award for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special.

"Thank you, Ellen DeGeneres, thank you, Hillary Clinton," McKinnon said as a nod to two big names she's impersonated (flawlessly) on her rise to stardom, as the audience laughed.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

Don't let the 2016 Emmys fool you, though. TV still has a ways to go before LGBTQ actors and characters are depicted fairly on screen.

Although progress has been made, there's still not enough quality representation in primetime programming — especially for transgender characters, women, and people of color, as the 2015 GLAAD "Where We Are On TV" report found.

What's more, when LGBTQ characters are included, they too often fall into dangerous tropes that perpetuate negative stereotypes. Hollywood also has a tendency to kill off LGBTQ characters or avoid giving them happy endings: "bury your gays," as it's been coined throughout the years.

Too often, queer characters are written more like props — not as complex, real people.  

The only recurring LGBTQ character on TV who's HIV-positive is portrayed by Conrad Ricamora (left) in "How to Get Away with Murder," the 2015 GLAAD report found. Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Point Foundation.

Media representation matters because if and how we see ourselves in the world around us (including on our TV screens) helps shape our own self perceptions in big ways.

Paulson understands no one Emmy win or captivating speech can shift an industry overnight.

"It’s a complicated thing to talk about," Paulson said when asked about how her speech plays into the bigger theme of trailblazing LGBTQ women. "The issues this raises are big and important. I don’t want to give superficial answers."

But — thanks in part to actresses like Paulson, McKinnon, and Cox — more girls and young women can see themselves in their favorite TV series and the Emmy speeches that make history. And that's big.

Gillian Anderson has been kicking ass and taking names for women in the entertainment industry since "The X-Files" premiered over 20 years ago.

Photo by Araya Diaz/Getty Images.


Ever since "The X-Files" first premiered in 1993, Anderson has been fighting to be treated as an equal to her male co-star on the series, David Duchovny.

As the Daily Beast reported:

"While Scully asserted her authority at every turn, Anderson found herself fighting just to stand on (literal) equal ground with her male co-star. The studio initially required Anderson to stand a few feet behind her male partner on camera, careful never to step side-by-side with him. And it took three years before Anderson finally closed the wage gap between her pay and Duchovny’s, having become fed up with accepting less than 'equal pay for equal work.'"

Anderson's portrayal of Scully over 20 years ago was an inspiration for a generation of women who grew up seeing themselves represented in a science-fiction show.

Kate McKinnon, star of "Saturday Night Live" and the recent "Ghostbusters" reboot, is one of those women — and even once dressed up as Scully for Halloween.

While that's amazing all on its own, it's not the most exciting news here.

Gillian Anderson just tweeted a photo of a young McKinnon dressed in full Scully regalia:

She captioned the photo:

"Kate McKinnon, we have something in common & it's not slimy green things. #Ghostbusters #thefutureisfemale"

This tweet is so many awesome things at once. Not only did Anderson honor McKinnon, the incredibly talented and deserving breakout star of "Ghostbusters," but she added the hashtag #thefutureisfemale, a slogan that originated back in 1972 to commemorate the first women's bookstore in New York City. Over the years, it's become a phrase for women's empowerment in the face of oppression.

Anderson's tweet makes an important statement about "Ghostbusters," a movie that's taken a lot of flack for putting hilarious women in the foreground. And fans have echoed her sentiment across Twitter.

Writer Jill Pantozzi shared a photo of herself also dressed as Scully:


In an article about why prominent female characters are important in movies like "Ghostbusters" and TV shows like "The X-Files," Pantozzi explained, "No matter how you feel about Ghostbusters, you can't deny these women and their characters will make a lasting and powerful impact to so many people."

Thanks to Anderson, McKinnon, and all women battling the still frightfully misogynistic world that is the entertainment business, things are slowly but surely changing for the better.

Hopefully, as a result, there will be a lot more girls dressed up like Scully and the Ghostbusters gang this Halloween.