Plans for a British version of Saturday Night Live don't have one late-night TV host feeling too excited. The veteran comedian called the idea of exporting SNL to the UK a "terrible idea."
Last month, NBC announced Saturday Night Live would get a British edition, expected to premiere next year. While not the first international edition of SNL, the show will likely feature some of the same celebrities who have hosted Saturday Night Live in the United States.
But don't expect John Oliver to get involved. The Last Week Tonight host called the idea "terrible" during an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
"It just sounds like a bad ... we have had sketch comedy before," Oliver told Seth Meyers. "And it feels like Saturday Night Live is such a unique group. It's a cult."
Oliver continued, questioning how the "cult" of Saturday Night Live could transfer to a British version of the sketch show. He mocked Meyers and his fellow SNL cult members for creating a culture where its expected to stay up all night on Tuesdays writing sketches.
"I'm saying that's the kind of thing a cult leader would make you do," Oliver quipped. The late-night host pointed out that plenty of other sketch shows have managed to create material without forgoing sleep on a specific night.
Great Britain's best sketch comedy shows
Whether or not John Oliver is correct about Saturday Night Live in the U.K. remains to be seen. But one thing is absolutely true: Great Britain has produced some of the best sketch comedy shows.
Of course, it all starts with Monty Python's Flying Circus. The show created its own brand of humor and influenced comedians around the world. The Benny Hill Show and A Show Called Fred predated Python and deserve recognition, too.
The Catherine Tate Show, Not the Nine O'Clock News, That Mitchell and Webb Look, A Bit of Fry & Laurie, The Fast Show, and French and Saunders are all worth checking out for anyone interested in the evolution of British humor.
Maybe Saturday Night Live can work its way onto the list of great British sketch shows. Until then, John Oliver remains skeptical.