Woody Harrelson on ‘SNL’ COVID monologue backlash: ‘It don’t change my life one bit’

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Woody Harrelson doesn’t care if you didn’t like his Saturday Night Live monologue earlier this season, which enraged one segment of the Internet after the actor poked fun at COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

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“Well, people told me it was, shall we say, trending,” Harrelson said when asked about his controversial SNL monologue in a recent interview with Esquire. “No, I don’t look at that s—. I feel like, ‘I said it on SNL.‘ I don’t need to go further with it… other than to say — well, no, I won’t. Never mind. That’s enough.… But it don’t change my life one bit. Not one bit, if the mainstream media wants to have a go at you, right? My life is still wonderful.”

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Elsewhere in the same interview, Harrelson described himself as a “libertarian.”

“There are things that the liberals do that I think, ‘What f— idiots.’ And then there’s also conservative ideology that strikes me as odd,” he said. “I consider myself, really, an anarchist…Well, I’m probably more of a libertarian.”

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During his hosting stint in February, Harrelson, 61, seemingly took aim at COVID vaccine mandates when he tried to joke about the “craziest script” he’s ever read.

“So the movie goes like this: The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes. And people can only come out if they take the cartel’s drugs and keep taking them over and over,” Harrelson said.

“I threw the script away. I mean, who was going to believe that crazy idea? Being forced to do drugs? I do that voluntarily all day.”

Harrleson’s wisecrack seemed to be a swipe at vaccine mandates and the 2020 lockdown, which was implemented to stop the spread of COVID-19.

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Later during his appearance, Harrelson described himself as a “redneck hippie.”

“You know, the red in me thinks you should be allowed to own guns,” the Cheers star said. “The blue in me thinks – squirt guns. So, I’m red and blue which makes purple. I’m purple.”

Predictably, Harrelson’s speech divided the keyboard crowd, with several venting their frustration with the actor’s attempt at humour.

“I just read Woody Harrelson’s monologue,” one person tweeted. “I guess I’m not a good sport, anymore because I don’t find anti-vax jokes funny while we lost a good chunk of America due to stupid people spreading it to others.”

Another agreed, writing, “Whenever anyone spews anti-vax stupidity, I always think of the countless videos of traumatized/crying doctors, nurses and hospital workers who were climbing over bodies in Covid’s early days. So yeah, f— Woody Harrelson.”

But Elon Musk shared a link to Harrelson’s monologue, calling it, “nice work.”

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Singer Five Times August also defended Harrelson, writing: “Woody Harrelson just told the entire country on live TV exactly what happened over the last three years and people are still like ‘Yea right! Never gonna happen! Anti-vax conspiracy theory garbage!!’”

Harrelson has shared similar views in the past, linking 5G networks to COVID shortly after the pandemic began in 2020. “I haven’t fully vetted it [but] I find it very interesting,” he wrote in the since-deleted Instagram post, according to the New York Post.

He also called COVID protocols “absurd” in an interview with the New York Times magazine earlier this year.

“Now to get an indie done? Especially with all the COVID protocols – which, to me, are rather absurd. I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said.

“The fact that they’re still going on! I don’t think that anybody should have the right to demand that you’re forced to do the testing, forced to wear the mask and forced to get vaccinated three years on. I’m just like, let’s be done with this nonsense.

“It’s not fair to the crews. I don’t have to wear the mask. Why should they? Why should they have to be vaccinated? How’s that not up to the individual?”

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