On the April 12, 2025 episode of Saturday Night Live, the show aired a parody sketch merging HBO’s The White Lotus with U.S. politics – cheekily titled “The White POTUS.”
The skit featured impersonations of Donald Trump (by James Austin Johnson) vacationing at a luxury resort with Ivanka Trump (Scarlett Johansson) and others.
It also spoofed a storyline from The White Lotus by including characters based on Rick (played in the sketch by Walton Goggins) and his younger British girlfriend Chelsea – a character that Aimee Lou Wood actually portrays in The White Lotus Season 3
For the parody, SNL cast member Sarah Sherman played the Chelsea character, exaggerating Wood’s real-life features for comic effect. Sherman donned a “bizarre British accent” (mimicking Wood’s Mancunian tone) and wore oversized prosthetic teeth clearly meant to caricature Wood’s notable gap-toothed smile.
The sketch took a surreal turn (Sherman’s character suddenly dashes off to “kill and eat a monkey”), but the focal gag was a riff involving Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (John Hamm) rambling about fluoride in drinking water to Sherman’s confused “Chelsea”.
In context, the fluoride joke came across as a swipe at Wood’s teeth – playing on an old trope about British dental care. While the show likely intended it as absurd humor, many felt the bit specifically targeted Wood’s appearance.
Wood’s reaction – “Unfunny and mean”
The morning after the episode, Aimee Lou Wood herself took to Instagram to voice her feelings. In a candid Instagram Story on April 13, she called the SNL sketch “unfunny and mean”.
Wood, who is 31 and known for her roles in Sex Education and now The White Lotus, expressed that she usually isn’t thin-skinned about satire. In fact, she welcomes clever humor at her expense when it’s in good spirits.
“I actually love being taken the p** out of when it’s clever and in good spirits,”* she wrote, emphasizing that she understands SNL’s brand of caricature.
However, this particular joke crossed a line for her.
The issue, Wood explained, was that the punchline hinged on ridiculing a physical trait that isn’t actually a flaw – her teeth – and it didn’t even make much sense in context.
“The joke was about fluoride. I have big gap teeth, not bad teeth,” Wood noted, pointing out that the sketch seemed to imply her teeth were “bad” (unattractive or uncared-for) when in reality she simply has a distinctive gap-toothed smile.
In comedy terms, Wood felt the show was punching down – targeting someone’s natural feature – whereas the rest of the sketch was poking fun at powerful figures (punching up at politicians and celebs).
“I don’t mind caricature… But the rest of the skit was punching up and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on,” she wrote.
Wood was also quick to defend the SNL performer involved. She made it clear her critique was aimed at the sketch’s concept, not at Sarah Sherman.
“Not Sarah Sherman’s fault. Not hating on her, hating on the concept,” Wood added in her posts. The actress even shared a follower’s comment that resonated with her: one fan compared the skit’s premise to “1970s misogyny,” suggesting it felt like an outdated, unfair mockery of a woman’s looks.
That sentiment – that ridiculing a woman’s teeth was a lazy, retrograde joke – was echoed by many supporters who found the bit in poor taste.
Backlash and SNL’s rare apology
The public response to the sketch sided largely with Wood. Social media users and entertainment outlets picked up the story, criticizing SNL for singling out an actress’s appearance so blatantly.
It’s extremely rare for SNL to admit a misstep, but in this case the show actually reached out with an apology.
According to Wood, SNL sent her an apology after the incident – something the actress herself noted was unusual. (It’s unclear if the apology was public or private, but the very occurrence of it underscores how off-target the joke landed.)
By issuing an apology, SNL essentially acknowledged that the sketch’s mean-spirited dig didn’t align with the good-natured satire they aim for.
In over four decades on air, the show has seldom apologized for content, so this reaction speaks volumes – the writers likely recognized they’d hit a nerve by mocking a physical trait that Wood (and many viewers) don’t consider fair game.
Beauty standards: Who decides what’s “flawed”?
Ironically, the very feature SNL chose to lampoon – Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth – has been widely celebrated by fans and observers as a refreshing dose of reality in Hollywood.
In The White Lotus, Wood’s character Chelsea is introduced with a line of dialogue that feels like a knowing wink: “I love your teeth,” another character tells her.
It might seem throwaway, but as one commentator noted, that line was surely written “specifically for her.” It acknowledges that Wood’s smile is distinctive – not the cookie-cutter, veneered grin we’re used to seeing on screen.
Wood’s two front teeth are slightly prominent (sometimes affectionately dubbed “bunny teeth”), with a noticeable gap between them. In an era when many actors undergo orthodontic work and bleaching to achieve a uniform look, Wood’s natural teeth stand out. In fact, they have become part of her signature.
Far from hindering her career, her choice not to “fix” her teeth has made her more memorable. What some might label an imperfection has instead become “her most distinctive, bankable feature,” helping her exude a disarming, relatable charm on screen.
Wood herself has noticed how positively audiences respond to her real look. Joining the cast of The White Lotus, she initially felt like an outsider among Hollywood veterans, with their polished confidence and polished appearances. Fans immediately picked up on Wood’s down-to-earth appearance amid the show’s cast.
In an interview, she remarked that the way people talk about her “not having veneers or Botox… feels a bit rebellious.” By simply being herself – gap-toothed grin and all – Wood has unwittingly positioned herself as a subtle rebel against Hollywood’s rigid beauty norms.
And audiences are here for it: many find her normalcy empowering.
This SNL controversy has highlighted a larger issue: our beauty standards, not Wood’s teeth, are the real problem. The joke only “works” if you buy into the idea that something is wrong with an actress having imperfect teeth.
Why should we think that? Who says every smile must be blindingly straight and symmetrical?
Over the last decade, a very narrow definition of beauty has been relentlessly promoted – what some call the “Instagram face” ideal (think: poreless skin, plumped lips, tiny nose, perfect teeth, etc.). Hollywood and social media often present a parade of near-identical, retouched faces.
Against that backdrop, any deviation – a gap tooth, a crooked smile, a wrinkle, a unique nose – can start to seem abnormal or funny, when in truth it’s completely human. The backlash on Wood’s behalf suggests the public is increasingly rejecting these cookie-cutter standards.
There’s evidence that more diverse representations of beauty are not only welcomed but needed. After all, studies show that representations in media and advertising affect women’s self-perception. Unrealistic beauty norms have real consequences: studies link exposure to narrow beauty ideals with body dissatisfaction, anxiety, and depression, especially among young women
In other words, seeing people who look “real” – with teeth gaps, un-airbrushed skin, and all – helps viewers feel comfortable in their own skin.
Conversely, when all we see are unrealistic ideals, it takes a toll. A global survey by Dove found that only 2% of women worldwide consider themselves beautiful, a startling statistic that speaks to how many women feel they fall short of an unattainable standard.
The conversation around Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth taps right into this dynamic. Her smile isn’t the problem at all – it’s the decades-old conditioning that tells us anything imperfect must be mocked or “fixed.”
Imperfections, in truth, are often what make people interesting and beautiful. Portuguese actress Ileana D’Cruz summed it up well: “You are a human being and are allowed to be imperfect… There is a lot of beauty in your imperfections, in your uniqueness.”
Reframing the narrative
Instead of asking why Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth aren’t flawlessly straight, perhaps we should ask why we expected them to be.
The quick punchline on SNL fell flat because it felt like picking on something that shouldn’t be considered a flaw in the first place.
Wood’s response – calling out the sketch and standing up for her natural features – resonated with so many people who are tired of seeing genuine traits trivialized or insulted.
The incident has sparked discussions about how comedy and media treat women’s appearances. It reminds us that the onus is on our culture to broaden its definition of beauty, not on individuals to conform to a fictitious ideal.
In the end, Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth are just teeth – perfectly healthy and uniquely hers.
The real “problem” exposed here is how conditioned we’ve become to see normal human variation as fodder for ridicule. It’s our beauty standards that need the fixing, not Aimee’s smile.
As the title suggests, Wood’s teeth were never the issue at all — it’s the distorted lens of perfection we’ve been looking through that deserves the joke.
