Saturday Night Live pokes fun at Oscars diversity row, Fey returns as Palin

Saturday Night Live added some comedic commentary on the Oscars and the ongoing row over lack of diversity in the 2016 nominations.

In a sketch titled “Screen Guild Awards”, shared via Huffington Post, cast members took on the roles of Hollywood actors at a stereotypical award show. The clip kicks off with Cecily Strong onstage announcing nominees in the “Best Actor” category. As she calls out their names and roles, a trend emerges: every actor nominated is white. On top of that, all of the films tell stories centred around people of colour, yet each role mentioned becomes more ridiculous than the last (read: “White man with a camera” and “unseen voice on phone”). In an unprecedented twist, the award goes to “all the white guys” in a five-way tie. Tina Fey returned to Saturday Night Live to reprise her impression of Sarah Palin and give a rambling, sometimes-rhyming endorsement to Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, actor Matt Damon and TV host Nick Cannon joined other celebrities in criticising the Academy awards’ lack of inclusion at this year’s nominations.

Damon , 45, said it is “insane” that all of the acting nominees at the Academy Awards are white, just like in 2015. “It was shameful and embarrassing that there were two years in a row without a single actor of colour nominated. That’s insane,” he said at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

TV host Nick Cannon too slammed the lack of diversity at this year’s Academy nominations by calling it “blasphemous” in a new black-and-white video. Cannon, 34, shared spoken word poetry about black suffering in the video, reported Us magazine.

Addressing the Oscar boycott, he said, “It’s blasphemous, don’t get distracted by these lottery tickets and statues. It’s just fake gold and plastic... We crying for votes but how many of us is on the board. Better yet, when’s the last time you showed up and supported the NAACP Awards I want what’s mine, not yours. “Meanwhile, 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen hopes the ongoing controversy surrounding the lack of non-white acting nominees at the 2016 Oscars will be a “watershed moment” for the industry. “Hopefully, when people look back at this in 20 years, it’ll be like seeing that David Bowie clip in 1983.”