Does That ‘SNL’ Sketch Expose a U.S.-U.K. Gap on Tourette’s Education?

Over the weekend, Saturday Night Live did its thing and immediately spoofed the big news out of the BAFTA Film Awards: The painful moment Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson shouted a racial slur while Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented.

It’s safe to say the industry — and the world — were astounded by the unfortunate incident’s handling. BAFTA apologized “unreservedly” to the Sinners duo, Davidson explained that he was “deeply mortified” if anyone believed his tics were intentional, and the BBC came under white-hot fire for failing to cut the N-word from its broadcast, which aired on a two-hour delay.

Hundreds of thousands of people weighed in on the online discourse, many with knowledge around the condition and plenty without. Tourette’s syndrome is a disability characterized by sudden, involuntary and repetitive movements or sounds, called tics. These often manifest as loud shouting and cursing, such as Davidson’s slur at the BAFTAs (he had been tic-ing in the minutes leading up to that moment, too — for example, shouting “Shut the fuck up!” as BAFTA chair Sara Putt made her introductory remarks).

The conversation around the event carried through to Saturday’s NAACP Image Awards, where Sinners actress Jayme Lawson told The Hollywood Reporter that the blame was firmly on the British Academy and the BBC. She said about Davidson: “That man’s disability got exploited that night, and it led to multiple offenses,” after shouting out Jordan and Lindo for “the grace and the dignity that they exercised.” Brit Wunmi Mosaku also told reporters on the red carpet: “I have no hard feelings towards John Davidson at all. He has a condition. I feel like BAFTA has a lot of lessons to learn… The BBC is a whole other thing. That’s the bit that really kind of kept me awake at night and brought tears to my eyes.”

Even though the ceremony was focused on celebrating Black talent, social media users were quick to pull host Deon Cole up on the moment he alluded to Davidson’s outburst: “If there are any white men in the room with Tourette’s, I advise you to tell them to read the room, lord,” said Cole. “It might not go the way they thinketh. Whatever medicine they’re on, they better double up on it.” Many of the attendees were filmed laughing and applauding Cole’s jokes about Davidson.

And then came the SNL sketch, where cast members Andrew Dismukes, Kenan Thompson and Ashley Padilla played Mel Gibson, Bill Cosby, and J.K. Rowling. The “cancelled” celebrities claimed in the sketch that their controversial statements and behavior were because they had Tourette’s.

“Tourette’s isn’t just blurting out offensive words,” Padilla says as the Harry Potter author. “It can be a years-long obsession with something like trans rights, and a deep anger that someone who is born with a wand in their pants would want that wand removed and replaced with a horcrux. But now you know it was all the Tourette’s fault, and not a bet I made with Bill Belichick to see who could destroy their legacy faster.”

Elsewhere in the sketch, James Austin Johnson, playing Louis C.K. — who admitted sexual misconduct claims against him were true in 2017 — said: “Tourette’s sucks, especially if you get it in your penis.” The YouTube video tally stands at nearly one million views at the time of writing.

The internet was quick to attack SNL for its decision, with many of the viral tweets defending Davidson coming from U.K.-based accounts. It was described by users as “an exercise in punching down” with one Brit writing on X: “Look forward to seeing a skit implying people in wheelchairs are just pretending they can’t walk, next week on SNL… Everyone involved in putting this on air should be ashamed.” The post accrued over 5,000 likes. Another London-based user said: “The difference between the U.K. and the U.S. has never been shown as clearly as it has been in the responses to a working-class disabled caretaker with an incurable neurological syndrome.”

Even the SNL post, linking to the sketch, had an X community note below: “Tourette Syndrome is a neurological condition that causes the sufferer to tic uncontrollably. Tics can include sudden physical movement or even offensive words and sounds. These are not able to be controlled and do not reflect the sufferers’ beliefs or feelings.”

The community note linked out to Tourette Scotland, a charity working to de-stigmatize the condition in the U.K. and support Scottish people with the disability. The organization actually revealed this week a huge uptick in donations and website visitors, with over £3,000 ($4,000) raised and many of the contributions donated in Davidson’s name.

In fact, the CEO of Tourette’s Action — another charity working to raise awareness, and who has a long-standing relationship with Davidson having helped with the production of the BAFTA-nominated I Swear — also slammed the SNL sketch. “Mocking a disability is never acceptable. It would not be tolerated for any other condition, and it should not be tolerated by people with Tourette’s,” said Emma McNally. “Tourette’s is a complex neurological condition, of which there is no cure. It is not a joke. It is not a personality trait. It is not a source of entertainment. It is a condition that can be extremely debilitating, causing pain isolation and huge amounts of discrimination.”

This sentiment is widely-held in the U.K., and has led to a real rallying around Davidson, who was first introduced to audiences here in the 1989 BBC documentary John’s Not Mad. The doc — voted one of the best documentaries to come out of the country in a British public poll in 2005 — shadows a 15-year-old Davidson growing up in Scotland with the condition. It is the same inspiration behind Kirk Jones’ I Swear, a film executive-produced by Davidson that proved so popular among BAFTA voters that it won Robert Aramayo the best actor award over the likes of Timothee Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Michael B. Jordan last week.

Tourette’s education in the U.K. is far from perfect, but there’s been a notable discrepancy between British reaction to last week’s fiasco and the content coming out across the Atlantic. It’s a disability that is recognized as such in Britain, and campaigners have made inroads in getting the public to understand the nuances of Tourette’s. Even the late Queen Elizabeth II was “calm and assured,” per Davidson, when he shouted “Fuck the Queen!” while collecting his MBE honor from her in 2019. “Her Majesty was very kind,” Davidson later said. “She was very good about it.”

Many have argued that the widespread misunderstanding of Tourette’s, as evidenced in the SNL sketch, does not diminish the severity of what took place at the BAFTAs and the harm it caused. But even Davidson has spoken publicly about what it’s exposed around attitudes toward Tourette’s worldwide: “I would like to thank each and every one of you who have shown love, support and solidarity towards myself and the rest of the Tourette’s Community,” he wrote on Facebook on March 1. “Your kind words and support have got me through a very difficult week.”

“Whilst I will never apologize for having Tourette syndrome, I will apologize for any pain, upset and misunderstanding that it may create. This past week has been tough and it has reminded me that what I do raising awareness for such a misunderstood condition, there is still a long way to go and I will keep on keeping on until this is achieved.”