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SNL UK Mocks Ed Sheeran over Macklemore Row
The sketch turns a royal AI briefing into a robot uprising, while Ed Sheeran plays a deliberately neutral song about staying on the fence.
On Saturday, Sky One's Saturday Night Live UK aired a cold open featuring King Charles III, an artificial intelligence version of Princess Diana, and Annabel Marlow as Ed Sheeran mocking the monarch and tech industry.
The sketch mocked Charles's artificial intelligence summit in Scotland last Thursday with Big Tech executives and referenced claims from Earl Charles Spencer's memoir that the King allegedly remarked the late princess would be forgotten.
Played by Jack Shep, the 'Deeply Intelligent, Autonomous, Neurokinetic Android' goes rogue during the sketch, while Marlow's Sheeran character insists on 'sitting on the fence' regarding the resulting human-robot conflict.
Sheeran's decision to drop rapper Benjamin Haggerty, known as Macklemore, from The Loop tour after his pro-Palestinian remarks sparked the parody, drawing criticism for Sheeran's perceived neutrality during the Gaza conflict.
During his Philadelphia concert, Sheeran addressed the controversy, expressing fear that venues would 'pre-approve' artists' content and admitting he questioned whether he 'wanted to be an artist at all.