Saturday Night Live (SNL) is known for its biting satire, and its sketch featuring Bowen Yang performing as Dobby the house-elf from Harry Potter during Weekend Update was no exception.
During the season premiere of SNL, Yang took aim at J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans comments and centered around the public disagreement between Rowling and actress Emma Watson. The outlet Them notes Rowling went after Watson and called her “ignorant” for her support of trans issues.
Rowling’s negative comments towards Watson stem from Watson’s appearance on a podcast whe she said she “still has love for Rowling and is grateful for the creation of Hermione Granger, but is upset at the tone and nature of the debate around gender diversity,” according to a Deadline report.
Based on Watson’s comments, Rowling responded on X, stating, “Like other people who’ve never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she’s ignorant of how ignorant she is.” She also said the following about Watson, “Adults can’t expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend’s assassination, then assert their right to the former friend’s love, as though the friend was in fact their mother. Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public – but I have the same right, and I’ve finally decided to exercise it.”
Being interviewed by Michael Che during Weekend Update, Bowen’s portrayal of Dobby used humor and parody to critique J.K. Rowling’s transphobic rhetoric, including saying, “Master sent Dobby to go on the telly and define once and for all what a woman is, sir!”
The sketch went viral, with the YouTube video currently earning 1.1 million views.
Yang has a track record of parading servants from popular movies, such as an Oompa Loompa from Willy Wonka, queer icons such as Jafar from Aladdin, and, most notably, embodied the iceberg that sank the Titanic via Them.
Photo courtesy of social media
