SNL: Ayo Edebiri addresses resurfaced mocking of Jennifer Lopez during live sketch

The Emmy-winning star of ‘The Bear’ joked that Lopez’s career is ‘one long scam’ during 2020 podcast appearance

The Bear star Ayo Edebiri used a Saturday Night Live comedy sketch to apologise for making mocking comments about Jennifer Lopez.

The jokes at Lopez’s expense, which were made on a podcast in 2020, resurfaced this week after it was announced that Edebiri would be hosting the long-running sketch show – while Lopez would be the musical act on the same episode.

In March 2020, Edebiri had appeared on the Scam Goddess podcast, in which comedians discuss “scams” throughout history. In her episode, she jokingly described Lopez’s entire career as “one long scam”.

She also referenced a long-standing urban legend that Lopez uses ghost singers on her songs, adding: “I think she thinks that she’s still good even though, like, she’s not singing for most of these songs.”

On last night’s episode of SNL (3 February), Edebiri appeared to apologise mid-sketch for her comments about Lopez. In the sketch, she played a contestant on a game show called “Why’d You Say It?”, in which players are asked to explain why they’d posted negative comments online.

At one point, Edebiri’s character said: “We get it! It’s wrong to leave mean comments, or run your mouth on a podcast and you don’t consider the impact because you’re 24 and stupid.

“But I think I speak for everyone when I say that from now on we’re going to be a lot more thoughtful about what we post online!”

Ayo Edebiri and Jennifer Lopez, who both appeared on last night’s episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’ (Getty Images)

The 28-year-old’s hosting gig on SNL is the latest in a run of successes for the rising star, who last month won an Emmy for The Bear. Her recent film work include the hit 2023 comedy Bottoms and voice roles in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

On the Emmy red carpet last month, Edebiri shared that she didn’t dream of awards while growing up and instead dreamt of one day being able to afford “dental insurance”.

Edebiri is also nominated for the Bafta EE Rising Star award alongside Talk to Me’s Sophie Wilde, Saltburn’s Jacob Elordi, Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor and How to Have Sex’s Mia McKenna-Bruce.

Voting for the award is now open at ee.co.uk/BAFTA until 12pm GMT on Friday 16 February. The winner will be announced at the EE Bafta Film Awards on Sunday 18 February