Recent years have seen some sort of controversy hit SNL ahead of its premiere each season. The lack of diversity was a huge slight for many a few seasons ago, followed by the removal of Cecily Strong from the Weekend Update desk after a fairly successful season alongside Colin Jost. The show did their best to change direction on those controversies, but now it seems that might be out of their hands. What do you do when your efforts to clean up your past only seem to make things worse?
That’s what new addition and first Latina cast member Melissa Villaseñor is apparently dealing with at the moment. Some watchful eyes on Twitter noticed that a number of tweets were disappearing from her account after Villaseñor joined SNL. She had set her account to private soon after, but nothing is ever truly gone in the internet age. Several users, including writer Aura Bogado who was initially suspicious of the deleted tweets according to Vulture, took screenshots and began to share them online:
https://twitter.com/aurabogado/status/777194062906429440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
All props to @aurabogado. I just took screenshots since @melissavcomedy is quickly scrubbing tweets like these… @nbcsnl @SNLUpdate pic.twitter.com/KXU9Z4DVqD
— April (@ReignOfApril) September 22, 2016
https://twitter.com/ShanelleLittle/status/778752079678418945
If it wasn’t obvious, there’s a good reason for Villaseñor to delete these tweets. Vulture reports that former SNL member Jon Rudnitsky faced a similar backlash for offensive tweets from his past. And surely many people would have the same issues with anything they’ve posted online over the years, forcing them to do the same.
There are also several high-profile incidents of comedians getting into hot water over their old social media posts. Trevor Noah was forced to address a similar controversy not long after he took over The Daily Show and there was the recent situation with Inside Amy Schumer writer Kurt Metzger. It’s a time of heightened awareness and folks are always watching.
