Watch SNL‘s Pro-Thatcher Punk History Sketch

SNL's History Of Punk

Watch SNL‘s Pro-Thatcher Punk History Sketch

SNL's History Of Punk

In real life, the Sex Pistols were no fans of Margaret Thatcher, but in the wake of the former prime minister’s passing, this weekend’s SNL re-imagined a world in which Johnny Rotten (or a thinly veiled composite) had a great big soft spot for the Iron Lady. In the SNL sketch, a mockumentary series called History Of Punk remembers the rise and fall of fictional early punk act Ian Rubbish & The Bizarros, starring Fred Armisen as Johnny Rotten stand-in Ian Rubbish. In their rise to infamy, the Bizarros took on the police and the queen, but as soon as Thatcher was elected, frontman Rubbish started writing heartfelt odes to her, defending her in the media, leading to embarrassment and his eventual termination by the rest of the band. The best part of the sketch is the real-life Steve Jones, weighing in on Rubbish’s puzzling affection for the prime minister. “We thought it was a joke,” says Jones. “Turned out he just really liked her.” Watch.

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