Woody Harrelson divided Saturday Night Live viewers over his monologue as the actor hosted the NBC sketch show for the fifth time.
The True Detective alum took the stage and made remarks calling out mandates over the Covid vaccine.
“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 about an alleged film script he read.
Harrelson’s punchline followed with the host adding, “I threw the script away. I mean, who is going to believe that crazy idea? Being forced to do drugs? I do that voluntarily all day long.”
The actor ended the joke by saying he didn’t need the mandate to take the drugs the cartels were forcing him to take.
In the past, Harrelson has called out the government and pharmaceutical companies profiting from the Covid pandemic and many people on social media assumed his SNL monologue was another one of those instances.
Twitter CEO, Elon Musk, called Harrelson’s monologue a “good one,” as a debate sparked on social media following the late-night show airing.
In another tweet, Musk congratulated the NBC show tweeting, “So based. Nice work @nbcsnl!”
As the media reported on Harrelson’s monologue, social media users that are conspiracy theorists began to make note of it with Musk responding to a user saying, “Maybe they don’t realize that their propaganda is wrong?”
Another user pointed out the headlines saying Harrelson was spreading anti-vax conspiracies, to which Musk replied with a target emoji.
Although Musk liked Harrelson’s monologue, other users expressed opposing views.
“It’s such an incredibly selfish & privileged position, the anti-vax, anti-lockdown, covid conspiracy one. Woody Harrelson, & those supporting such bs, are only able to do so because they themselves are ok,” a Twitter user shared. “Nobody who suffered or lost loved ones to Covid talks like that.”
Author and TV writer Lee Goldberg, whose credits include The Glades and Psych, shared his opinion on Twitter.
“Thank you, @nbcsnl, for Woody Harrelson’s insipid anti-vax monologue. Who are going to have guest host next week, Scott Baio? Rob Schneider? Kevin Sorbo? Maybe invite Kanye back while you’re at it,” he shared.
Comedian and TV writer Ashley Ray also tweeted her view saying, “rant makes it sound like he did it randomly without permission when this definitely sounds like a thing that was written and on cue cards.”
iHeartRadio host Jerry Houston tweeted, “Woody Harrelson ~actually~ admitted to being a drugged out redneck. He physically said so moments before he spouted his anti-vax message…and yet those folks are now frothing at the mouth like he’s some expert? wow ok.”