'Saturday Night Live' Debates Aziz Ansari Sexual Misconduct Scandal

During another Saturday Night Live restaurant sketch, the show parodied the awkwardness of talking [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

During another Saturday Night Live restaurant sketch, the show parodied the awkwardness of talking about comedian Aziz Ansari's sexual misconduct scandal.

The sketch had a group of friends — played by Heidi Gardner, Beck Bennett, Kate McKinnon, host Will Ferrell, Aidy Bryant and Kenan Thompson — talking at dinner. When Gardner asks everyone if they read a new New York Times op-ed on the Ansari controversy, she opens a can of worms.

Gardner suggests they talk about something else, but Ferrell says they can talk about Ansari. McKinnon then takes the floor. Ferrell tells her to be very careful about what she says.

"I think that some women can..."

"Careful..." Bryant warns.

"...Rather some men, have a proclivity..."

Thompson stops her, then steps in.

"While I applaud the movement, I wonder if we're setting it back?" Thompson says.

Bryant starts too, but stops mid-sentence.

"The thing that I keep going back to is, it seems like, if she wanted to leave... she could have just... left?" Beckett starts.

Then, the lights go dark and the other people at the table try to hide. Bryant says they are adults and can finish talking about the topic. Ferrell wants to talk about the dog, but McKinnon says they are now in a post-Babe.net universe and they have to finish what they started.

They then go around the table, but still cannot figure out how to say something.

Thompson then wonder about how it intersects with race, which causes a multitude of horrible things to happen. Even Pizza Rat comes back to life. The sketch ends when they decide to talk about something else.

Back on Jan. 13, Babe.net published the account of a 23-year-old woman identified as Grace, who went on a date with Ansari last fall. The story sparked a debate online about consent.

Ansari later admitted that the date happened, and said he thought the sexual activity during the date was "completely consensual."

"The next day, I got a text from her saying that although 'it may have seemed okay,' upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable," Ansari wrote. "It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said."

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