A Joke About Sydney Sweeney’s Appearance In A “Saturday Night Live” Clip Has Sparked Backlash After She Previously Talked About The “Ridiculous” Way She’s Been Sexualized

The 40-second bit begins with Sydney reading a book while walking through Studio 8H. Not looking where she’s going, she bumps into Michael, whose papers go flying onto the ground, along with Sydney’s book.

Like a scene from a movie, Michael bends down to pick up the book from the floor and notices that it’s one of his favorites. Totally enamored with Sydney, he launches into a rom-com–esque speech and begins asking her on a date — only to realize she’s already walked away.

After Sydney introduces herself, Heidi predicts that “so many women are gonna tune in this weekend” by virtue of the fact that the show is being hosted by a group of “strong ladies.”

In response, Sydney says, “Weirdly, a lot of my fans are men,” prompting Kacey to say, “Hmm, I wonder why.”

“I have big boobs, I’m blonde, and that’s all I have,” she told the Sun last year while discussing people’s perceptions of her. “I had boobs before other girls, and I felt ostracized for it,” she added.

In the same interview, she also said it was “disgusting and unfair” when screenshots of her nude scenes in Euphoria were being widely circulated both online and in the real world.

“It got to the point where they were tagging my family. My cousins don’t need that,” she said at the time. “You have a character that goes through the scrutiny of being a sexualized person at school, and then an audience that does the same thing. I think it’s ridiculous. I’m an artist, I play characters. It makes me want to play characters that piss people off more.”

“Challenge for SNL writers: have Sydney tell jokes that aren’t just about her being hot, and speak to her other qualities as an actor and person,” one person wrote on X in response to the most recent promo clip.

“I remember her saying how icky it was for her growing up with big boobs and being sexualized for it and yet people still continue to sexualize her like no tomorrow,” added another user, while others described the jokes as “sad.”

“My only hope is that this won’t be a lot like when Jacob Elordi hosted SNL and so many sketches focussed on his outer appearance,” someone wrote in the YouTube comments section of Thursday’s promo video. “I hope Sydney’s hosting gig won’t just be a re-hashing, as somewhat evidenced by this ad. She has way more to offer than physical appearance, as did/does Elordi.”

Over on X, people echoed similar thoughts, with one person writing, “jacob elordi’s entire hosting gig was pretty much all about his looks as well so i have a feeling this will be the same… probably worse.”

“They’re going to go the Jacob Elordi route and everything is going to be about her being hot,” someone else added in the same thread.