During the "Weekend Update" segment of this week's "Saturday Night Live," a standout bit performed by cast member Melissa Villaseñor acknowledged a commonality among a majority of the Oscar-nominated films, leading to a lively discussion on social media.
Villaseñor appeared on the segment to show off her "Oscar songs," each about a different film nominated this year, only for a trend to appear — each film centers around "white male rage."
After "Weekend Update" co-host Colin Jost remarked that none of Villaseñor's songs appeared in any of the films, she replied, "Of course, none of these songs are in the movies, Colin. Here's another one."
When Jost asked how many more songs there were, Villaseñor said she had "a whole bunch" but said she would "combine them all," rattling through nominated films that shared the narrative of "white male rage" such as "Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood," "Jojo Rabbit" and "1917" — while adding that "Little Women" director Greta Gerwig, whose film was not about "white male rage," was snubbed for a best director nomination.
The bit, which was written by Villaseñor and SNL writers Dan Bulla and Steven Castillo, struck a chord on Twitter, where the #WhiteMaleRage hashtag began trending and had well over 14,000 tweets by Sunday afternoon.
New York Times media reporter Nicole Sperling tweeted, "Welp @TheAcademy you've just been handed your opening number for #Oscars2020. hope you do it justice."
"Every Oscar Best Picture nominee has only been created because of #WhiteMaleRage. Gotta love #SNL," one Twitter user wrote.
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Another wrote, "@melissavcomedy gives the best summary of Oscar season thus far. #WhiteMaleRage."
The conversation on social media began to deviate from just talk about the Oscars and gradually escalated into a conversation about "white male rage" in modern society and in the 2020 race for the presidency.
"Fragile men set out to prove that SNL is completely irrelevant by...tweeting about it all night long #WhiteMaleRage," one Twitter user wrote.
Another tweeted, "If you're white and male and don't like being treated as a faceless part of a group, losing all your individuality, when someone talks or jokes about #WhiteMaleRage it could be a chance to understand that people in other groups may feel that way too when you stereotype them."
While Twitter went back and forth on the segment, a handful of users found one idea they could agree on.
"Melissa Villaseñor should host the Oscars," Baltimore Magazine's editor-in-chief Max Weiss tweeted.
