SNL: Seth Meyers’ best sketches
By Matt Moore
You Call This a House Do Ya?
Saturday Night Live has never hesitated to use the Irish as a source for comedy. With an easy to recognize accent and stereotypes that everyone knows, the people of Ireland have been lampooned by SNL for years. Mike Myers parodied Irish drinking songs, Bill Hader did the Irish dating show, and Seth Meyers also played an Irishman alongside Jimmy Fallon as talk show hosts in a pub.
Like most SNL sketches these are intended to be harmless. Most of the writers and actors behind them are Irish themselves and plenty of other races, religions, and countries have been the target of jokes. However, there was some push back in 2017. Irish actress Saoirse Ronan appeared in a bit aboard an Aer Lingus flight that played on many of the same Irish stereotypes seen in other sketches. When some in Ireland took offense, Ronan had to defend the sketch herself.
Thankfully, the Irish Home Makeover Show debuted in 2004 where there was a little less public outcry. Meyers does a serviceable Irish accent as “Buldin'” Finn McQuinn. Again, his work is bolstered by an assist from Amy Poehler. And like Ronan, Irish actor Liam Neeson is there to lend credibility to it all.