Conservatives Rage After Will Ferrell Says He Regrets Dressing Up As Janet Reno On 'SNL'

Uh oh, someone said something nice about trans people again! And you know what that means: Conservatives are throwing tantrums.

Their newest outrage comes after SNL legend Will Ferrell's recent comments about his time dressing up in drag to play former Attorney General Janet Reno on the show in the '90s.

Ferrell is currently promoting the Netflix documentary film Will & Harper, which explores the relationship between Ferrell and his best friend, former SNL writer and trans woman Harper Steele, before, during and since Steele's transition.

During a recent appearance on The New York Times' podcast The Interview, Ferrell said that knowing what he knows now about gender and trans people's experiences, the Janet Reno sketches are not something he'd do nowadays.

As the first female US Attorney General, Reno's appointment by former President Bill Clinton in 1993 was a landmark moment. But her tall stature, short haircut and deeper voice made her a frequent target of mockery in pop culture for her supposedly unfeminine appearance.

That included on Saturday Night Live, where sketches featuring Will Ferrell playing Janet Reno became a mainstay.

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Many of the sketches, like a series entitled "Janet Reno's Dance Party," played on the Attorney General's very buttoned-up, all-business demeanor.

But in others, like a series called "Janet Reno's Fantasies," the sketches hinged specifically on the constant gendered mockery of Reno in the press.

Ferrell told The Interview he now regrets this, saying this use of drag "hits a false note now." He went on to say:

“That’s something I wouldn’t choose to do now... "

He added that he senses there are probably a lot of SNL moments from back then that probably wouldn't fly nowadays.

"I’d have to go back and review shows, but I’m sure there’d be a fair amount [of sketches] where you’d lament the choice."

But Steele herself, who was among the writers of those Janet Reno sketches, was a bit more circumspect. Following Ferrell's comments, she added:

"This kind of bums me out. I understand the laugh is a drag laugh. It’s, 'Hey, look at this guy in a dress, and that’s funny.' It’s absolutely not funny. It’s absolutely a way that we should be able to live in the world."

"However, with performers and actors, I do like a sense of play."

She likened the sketches to the film The Birdcage in which Robin Williams campily played a gay man. Steele said she's talked to gay men for whom the film is beloved, and gay men who felt hurt by the mockery.

"I wonder if sometimes we take away the joy of playing when we take away some of the range that performers, especially comedy performers, can do."

All in all it was a very nuanced, heartfelt and incisive conversation. But that is, of course, not at all how conservatives took it. Right-wingers raced to X to, of course, complain that Ferrell had gone "woke," because they never have anything else to say.

Others lamented how "unfunny" Ferrell is now and complained about the death of comedy and blah blah blah.

But thankfully for once these crybabies are in the minority—most people are excited to see Will & Harper, which has earned early raves at film festivals, and have been applauding Steele's bravery and Ferrell's openness to learn and grow.

Will & Harper premieres on Netflix September 27.