Surprise, surprise: People don’t want AI slop on ‘SNL’

9 hours ago7 min read1 comments

Okay, so the internet is having a full-blown meltdown, and for once, it’s not about a celebrity breakup or a TikTok trend—it’s about Saturday Night Live. The latest episode just aired, and eagle-eyed fans are absolutely roasting the show for what they’re calling blatant ‘AI slop.’ Let’s break it down. During the cold open, a segment featured an illustrated Christmas storybook that looked… off.The images had that weird, hazy, yellowish filter that screams ‘mid-tier AI generator,’ and the streets in the picture didn’t even connect properly—a classic tell. Then, on ‘Weekend Update,’ they showed an image of a woman playing a slot machine in an empty casino, hooked up to an oxygen tank with tubes that were just… floating, not attached to anything.It was on screen for seconds, but that’s all it took. The backlash was immediate and vicious.Over on Reddit, threads lit up with viewers calling it ‘gross’ and ‘a shame,’ while on Bluesky, the sentiment was summed up with a simple, devastating ‘Booooooo. ’ Even the podcast That Week In SNL threw shade on social media, basically saying ‘we see you, and we’re not having it.’ This isn’t happening in a vacuum. We’re deep in an era of AI fatigue, where audiences are hyper-aware and increasingly pissed about synthetic media creeping into everything.Just last week, McDonald’s Netherlands had to yank an AI-generated ad from YouTube after it got bombarded with negative comments. And remember that Coca-Cola holiday ad that went viral for all the wrong reasons? The studio behind it literally admitted the tech wasn’t ready.It’s so fitting that Merriam-Webster just named ‘slop’ its 2025 Word of the Year. But here’s why this SNL thing hits different.A fast-food ad is one thing; it’s disposable by nature. SNL, for all its ups and downs, is an institution built on human craft.We’re talking about a show famous for its incredibly detailed, hand-built sets and costumes—the production design is practically a character itself. Even the janky, low-effort Photoshop jobs they throw up during ‘Weekend Update’ are a beloved, intentional part of the joke.Using what looks like lazy AI imagery feels like a betrayal of that legacy. It’s cheap.It’s sloppy. And for a fanbase that prides itself on spotting every detail, it’s an insult.The irony is thick enough to cut with a knife, because SNL itself has been joking about AI all year. Back in January, a sketch with Timothée Chalamet and Bowen Yang hilariously mocked AI’s inability to draw human hands, and just last month, Glen Powell played a grandpa in a sketch about an AI photo app gone horribly wrong.

#AI slop

#SNL

#AI-generated imagery

#backlash

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