Saturday Night Live poked fun at Tessica Brown’s case — the Louisiana woman who used Gorilla Glue instead of hairspray — in a new sketch this weekend. The show cast host Regina King and a few other cast members as victims of similar misfortune, but teased Brown by having them frequently repeat: “We are not stupid people!”
Brown became a viral sensation last week when she posted a video on TikTok showing her Gorilla Glue experiment results. Since then, she has become an inspiration for many, taking her criticism in stride and donating $20,000 from her GoFundMe campaign to a reconstructive surgery organization, according to a report by TMZ. Still, that did not spare her some teasing at the hands of King and the SNL writers, in a parody of an advertisement for a class-action lawsuit against Gorilla Glue.
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Both and King and Kenan Thompson sported rigid hairstyles as they introduced their legal action against Gorilla Glue. They acknowledged that the packaging and labels on Gorilla Glue did not give the impression that it was suitable for hair but still argued that the company should pay for their suffering. Cast members Chris Redd, Ego Nwodim, Cecily Strong and Punkie Johnson, got in on the parody as well.
The crowd laughed uproariously at the sketch, and it circulated widely on social media after the initial telecast. However, some commenters thought it took cheap shots at Brown rather than examining her story’s nuance. They expected a show like SNL to acknowledge Brown’s generosity and self-effacement in the days after her viral fame.
“They’re not just making fun of her, they’re making fun of YOU and you don’t even see it,” one person tweeted. Another wrote: “Of course they did. After she did an interview saying this has damaged her mental health!!!” A third fan wrote: “Stereotypes at it’s best, not entertainment or funny.”
Brown told The New York Times that she spent days with the Gorilla Glue stuck in her hair and was at a loss over how to solve the problem. Even after her viral video, when advice came pouring in from all around the globe, it seemed like there was no hope until a plastic surgeon from Los Angeles, California, reached out to help. After a few hours in surgery last week, Brown was finally free.
Brown received thousands of dollars in donations from viewers as well, but once her own problem was solved, she paid that generosity forward. She kept enough of this money to pay for her emergency room visit and some travel expenses, but because Dr. Michael Obeng did her surgery for free, she donated the remaining $20,000 to his Restore Foundation. The charity provides reconstructive surgery services to people in need around the world.
