Actor Woody Harrelson recently appeared on Saturday Night Live. The Natural Born Killers and Zombieland star took the opportunity to make a joke regarding coronavirus vaccine mandates. However, Woody Harrelson has sparked controversy online as a result of his vaccine joke.
The vaccine joke, which was delivered as a monologue, featured Woody Harrelson comparing pharmaceutical companies to drug cartels. It all begins as he discusses the “craziest script” that he’s ever read. Obviously it doesn’t take much to figure out what he’s referring to.
Here’s how his monologue begins:
“So the movie goes like this,” Harrelson starts. “The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes.”
He then makes allusions to the vaccine mandates:
“And people can only come out if they take the cartel’s drugs and keep taking them over and over,” he adds. “I threw they script away. I mean, who was going to believe that crazy idea? Being forced to do drugs? I do that voluntarily all day long!”
Here’s some of the backlash that Woody Harrelson has faced in response:
Thank you, @nbcsnl, for Woody Harrelson’s insipid anti-vax monologue. Who are going to have guest host next week, Scott Baio? Rob Schneider? Kevin Sorbo? Maybe invite Kanye back while you’re at it.
— Lee Goldberg (@LeeGoldberg) February 26, 2023
Re Woody Harrelson and #SNL, whenever anyone spews anti-vax stupidity, I always think of the countless videos of traumatized/crying doctors, nurses and hospital workers who were climbing over bodies in Covid’s early days. So yeah, fuck Woody Harrelson.
— Ballark (@ballark) February 26, 2023
rant makes it sound like he did it randomly without permission when this definitely sounds like a thing that was written and on cue cards https://t.co/4HypS2ulLk
— ashley ray (@theashleyray) February 26, 2023
Woody Harrelson sounding like an antivaxxer 😂
— aussie17 (@_aussie17) February 26, 2023
Woody Harrelson obviously didn’t lose anyone close to him from covid or he wouldn’t be spouting anti-vax dribble.
— 🌴Teak🌴 🌈☮️🌊 (@tealmobile7) February 27, 2023
There were also those that defended the actor:
Get ready for the meltdowns…
SNL host Woody Harrelson calls out Big Pharma over COVID and the vax pic.twitter.com/dIdlBahwda
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 26, 2023
Woody Harrelson sums up the Covid scam perfectly pic.twitter.com/Isvyn4txn7
— Avi Yemini (@OzraeliAvi) February 26, 2023
Woody Harrelson accuses the media of being owned by the Big Pharma Drug Cartel and then the media immediately proves his point.
Well done. pic.twitter.com/avdWgYnNEm
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 26, 2023
People don’t seem to understand, Woody Harrelson is what liberals used to be.
— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) February 26, 2023
Woody Harrelson ribs Pfizer + Moderna brilliantly on @nbcsnl. Hypnotized audience misses the joke. pic.twitter.com/3Sm8NvF5qM
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) February 26, 2023
Woody Harrelson has discussed his distrust of “big pharma” in the past. As such, it isn’t surprising that he might want to make a joke at their expense. As for social media, however, it’s become clear that making such jokes will continue to be frowned upon. It’s certainly interesting to see the reactions as we continue to move away from the start of the pandemic.
This marks Woody Harrelson’s fifth outing as host on Saturday Night Live. At one point during the show, he was even awarded a jacket from Scarlett Johansson. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates as we have them.