Saturday Night Live Slavery Jokes Spark Intense Backlash—Writer Defends Herself in Heated Twitter Rant

SNL's Leslie Jones unleashed more than 17 tweets Sunday night to defend her controversial jokes.

By Leanne Aguilera May 05, 2014 5:34 PMTags
Leslie JonesNBC

File this one under: Memorable First Impressions.

On the latest episode of Saturday Night Live, comedian and writer Leslie Jones made her onscreen debut on Weekend Update and sparked intense controvery over her remarks on slavery.

After publically complimenting Lupita Nyong'o on being named People's most beautiful person, Jones went on to joke that if we were "back in the slave days" then the writer would have had been even more desirable than Nyong'o is today.

As the "in-house image expert," Jones clarified that she was not saying that she wants to be a slave, but rather she wants the attention that would come from being "six feet tall" and strong.

"I do not want to be a slave. Hell, I don't like working for all you white people right now, and y'all pay me," Jones said live on the air. "I'm just saying that back in the slave days, my love life would've been way better. Master would've hooked me up with the best brother on the plantation. And every nine months I'd be in the corner having a super baby."

In case you missed it, take a look at the clip above to see all of Jones' jokes from her appearence.

Jones' controversial slavery jokes sparked an Internet frenzy, and the SNL writer was soon bombarded with hundreds of tweets from upset fans. Ebony Magazine's senior editor, Jamilah Lemieux, even called Jones an "embarrassment" on Twitter.

Jones took to her own Twitter account Sunday night to address the negative comments and defend her jokes—albeit with some NSFW language.

Jones went on to say, "If anybody should be offended it's white folks cause it's what they did. Y'all so busy trying to be self righteous you miss what the joke really is. Very sad I have to defend myself to black people. Now I'm betting if Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle did that joke or Jay Z or Kanye put in a rap they would be called brilliant. Cause they all do this type of material."

"Just cause it came from a strong black woman who ain't afraid to be real y'all mad. So here is my announcement black folks, you won't stop me and Im gonna go even harder cause we too f--king sensitive and instead of make lemonade out of lemons we just suck the sour juice from the lemons. Wake up. I wouldn't be able to do a joke like that if I didn't know my history or proud of where I came from and who I am."

Jones eventually ended her Twitter rant be saying, "Sorry had a moment, can't when over the haters i am not the jackass whisperer. that is all…"

(E! and Saturday Night Live are a part of the NBCUniversal family).

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