'Who approved this?' Twitter torches Woody Harrelson's anti-vax SNL monologue

Actor Woody Harrellson recently hosted Saturday Night Live for the fifth time, performing an anti-vax monologue that triggered awkward silences and a few disgruntled laughs in the audience — and an uproar on Twitter.

Harrellson started his six-minute spiel describing himself as a "redneck hippy" who identifies as "purple," politically — a "joke" that clearly fell flat, according to The Daily Beast.

The Daily Beast reports:

Harrelson began to tell a bizarre story about a script he read in 2019 after the last time he hosted the show, but continually interrupted himself to talk about his penchant for weed and the fact that he spent seven months without alcohol last year… 'and five glorious months.'

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But the comedian's speech quickly went downhill.

"So the movie goes like this," Harrelson said. “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. And people can only come out if they take the cartel's drugs and keep taking them over and over."

He continued, "I threw the script away. I mean, who was going to believe that crazy idea? Being forced to do drugs? I do that voluntarily all day long."

Variety reports:

In the past, 'Saturday Night Live' has been publicly COVID-conscious, choosing to film out the quarantined season from inside their cast member's homes.

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Social media users were unamused.

Nick Brennan: "What on earth was this anti-vax nonsense?"

Ryan M. Spaeder: "I am shocked that Saturday Night Live did not cut out of this, let alone the fact that they tweeted it."

@FairyTaleMindy: "Who approved this?"

@Dan__Stevens: "Locked in your home until you take the cartels' drugs"

@antibrews: "My guy made the SNL crowd sound like a half-empty comedy club on open mic night."

Meanwhile, Twitter's billionaire owner Elon Musk – who has enabled conspiracy theories to propagate on the platform – appeared to appreciate Harrelson's perspective.

"Good one," he commented.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Woody Harrelson Monologue - SNLyoutu.be

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Variety's full report is available at this link. The Daily Beast's is here.