Saturday Night Live took aim at J.K. Rowling in its season premiere over the weekend in a casually cold takedown of her perpetual victimhood and anti-trans crusade.
Rowling's most recent run in the news has been related to her one-sided feud with Emma Watson. The billionaire author has taken aim at the stars of Harry Potter on more than one occasion, and recently lashed out after Watson had the audacity to say that she still treasures the experiences she had with Rowling and is still open to having a conversation with her.
In return, Rowling ranted on X about how Watson has criticized her and "publicly poured more petrol on the flames" when she was getting "death, rape and torture threats" — a wildly tone deaf thing to say when Rowling herself continues a very public crusade against trans people that has contributed to plenty of harassment.
SNL referenced this conflict in a skit that saw Dobby the House Elf (Bowen Yang) come onto Weekend Update to "define, once and for all, what a woman is." It was a goofy little thing, but one that managed to hit at Rowling on a couple different levels.
1. Sending Dobby to do Rowling's dirty work
At the start of the skit, host Michael Che asks Dobby whether the nameless "Master" he says sent him to do her dirty work is Rowling, to which he says yes — then immediately self-flagellates as he recalls he wasn't supposed to acknowledge that.
Despite Rowling's recent claim that she's "not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created," she's publicly mocked and chided the Harry Potter stars who don't agree with her views frequently enough that it's difficult to buy into the idea that she genuinely never expected a certain level of deference from them.
So SNL using the idea of a subservient and beloved house elf to work as Rowling's secret mouth piece to regurgitate her beliefs? Yeah, that tracks.
2. Pointing out her past "inclusivity" efforts
The skit also took a familiar (but relevant) shot at some things Rowling has been criticized for in the past, such as only making Albus Dumbledore gay outside of canon rather than mentioning it in the books, evenrand naming the Asian character in Harry Potter "Cho Chang." Yang's Dobby also reminds viewers that Hermione was Black — but only in the stage production, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
"You see, Master Rowling has done so much for Dobby and for inclusion in general," he says.
Of course, it isn't as if Rowling has done nothing productive or well-intentioned regarding activism or inclusion over the years. But acting as if she is now a champion for women and LGB people (and, specifically, lesbians) because she devotes so much of her platform trying to shut out the T is wild.
3. The millennial cringe
Most simply of all, the skit has even Dobby himself say that he's "millennial cringe," and you know what? He's right. We don't have to pretend Harry Potter never mattered to society or make bold declarations about whether it was ever good or not in order to see that there's no world in which caring this much about the opinions of an author who is known for exactly one series of books for kids is goofy.
4. Calling out Rowling's victimhood
One thing that has remained consistent ever since Rowling took on the mantle of fighting against trans rights and acceptance is that she has repeatedly attempted to paint herself as the victim.
"House elves are somehow always the problem, even though we're only one percent of the population," Yang's Dobby points out in the skit. "But house elves aren't the victims. Master Rowling is. She gets so much hate mail."
Let's be clear — even people who are rich and privileged can be subjected to harassment and threats. There is a certain amount of insulation wealth and status can provide against those things, without a doubt, but they still happen.
However, if they're happening because someone continuously punches down, pulling the victim card means nothing, nor does the attempt by her and everyone else involved in this anti-trans crusade to paint trans people as the problem.
And when it comes to being a "victim," there's definitely a notable difference between trying to strip rights away from an entire group of people and shift public sentiment against them vs being the recipient of angry tweets.
SNL will undoubtedly have more opportunities to point out how utterly out of touch with reality Rowling has become in both the near and distant future — possibly even without the "millennial cringe" of Dobby the House Elf.
