Culture 3 min read By Mason Emerson
Cynthia Erivo hosts Saturday Night Live UK with viral Nigerian Wicked parody
Cynthia Erivo's Nollywood-style Wicked parody, written by Ayoade Bamgboye, has drawn more than 1.6 million YouTube views and praise from fans and former SNL UK host Aimee Lou Wood.
Cynthia Erivo hosted Saturday Night Live UK over the weekend, and a Wicked parody from the episode has become one of the most talked-about sketches of the season. Titled Nollywood Presents: Nigerian Wicked, the sketch has already passed 1.6 million views on YouTube.
Drawing on the look and conventions of the Nigerian film industry of the early 2000s, the sketch casts Erivo as Glinda opposite Ayoade Bamgboye as Elphaba. The pair meet at Shiz University before travelling to LagOz to meet The Wizard, played by Hammed Animashaun. On arrival in the “Emerald, White and Emerald City”, a nod to the colours of the Nigerian flag, Glinda reveals she is asking The Wizard for a Birkin bag, while Elphaba wants a “skinny BBL that defies gravity”. The two characters nearly kiss on more than one occasion, and Bamgboye attempts Erivo's “Defying Gravity” note, a moment that plays on the show's own sapphic undercurrents that fans of the stage musical and films have long discussed.
Bamgboye wrote the sketch and it was directed by Will Farrell. Farrell shared his delight on Instagram, writing: “Finally achieved my dream of directing a Nigerian version of Wicked.” Former SNL UK host Aimee Lou Wood also shared the sketch on social media, saying: “I will write a book on the love I have for Ayoade Bamgboye and it will take my whole life to express the depths.” Fans on X echoed the enthusiasm, with one calling it possibly the best SNL sketch ever and suggesting that only SNL UK could have pulled it off. Another praised it as a top-five sketch of any sketch show they had seen.
Bamgboye thanked the cast and crew in a post of their own, describing the response as astonishing and saying Erivo “made such light work” of an idea they called the most unhinged they had ever imagined. The sketch also arrives alongside a broader conversation about the Wicked films, whose treatment of the Elphaba and Glinda relationship drew attention from LGBTQ fans who had hoped for a more explicit romantic moment. Entertainment coverage of the episode noted that SNL UK had answered those demands with a playful parody.
The episode was not limited to the Wicked spoof. Erivo also played a queer version of Rapunzel with an overgrown toenail in place of the usual long hair, and performed in a “modern music” parody alongside Annabel Marlow that appeared to draw on Charli XCX's album Brat. The Erivo-hosted episode is the final broadcast of Saturday Night Live UK for 2026, and the show is set to return in early 2027.
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