British actor Daniel Kaluuya sent sparks flying around the Saturday Night Live studio last night when he cracked jokes about “British racism”, claiming that he looked like what the royal family had nervously envisioned while anticipating Meghan Markle’s baby Archie.
“First of all, I know you're hearing my accent and thinking 'oh no, he's not black, he's British’,” the actor, who was born in London to Ugandan parents, started in his debut monologue on SNL.
“Let me reassure you that I am black. I'm black and I'm British. Basically I am what the royal family was worried the baby would look like,” the 2021 Oscar nominee said.
Kaluuya went on joking about British “racism”, which the Sussexes assured was a driving force behind their decision to leave their senior royal positions:
“People ask me what's worse, British racism or American racism. Let me put it this way, British racism is so bad white people left. They wanted to be free, free to create their own kind of racisms,” the actor continued.
“That's why they invented Australia, South Africa and Boston.”
Despite some controversy the issue could have sparked, social media users generally found the monologue “hilarious” and went to share it around in big numbers.
Others burst on Kaluuya’s other bits, including a sketch portraying him as a game show host pressuring his alleged relatives to take the COVID vaccine in exchange for money.
The “racism in the royal family” claims gained momentum in March when Meghan Markle said in the interview with Oprah Winfrey that there were “concerns” among senior royals about “how dark” her son Archie would be.
Prince Harry confirmed there were some talks on the topic, but has refused to say who was behind the eyebrow-raising questions. One royal experts alleged that it could have been Princess Anne, the Queen’s daughter and Prince Harry’s aunt. These claims have not been corroborated, with Prince William confidently telling the media days after the interview went on air that the Royal Family was “very much not racist”.