As the longest running sketch show in America, Saturday Night Live has reached a global audience since its launch in 1975. 

Now the series has been adapted for a British spin-off, with SNL: UK reportedly set to launch on Sky in March. 

There is expected to be a vast difference in the shows, notably due to the broad difference in American and English humour, but it will be interesting to see if the brand's history of making misogynistic jokes travels across the pond. 

Last week, SNL viewers were left outraged after Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard made a vulgar joke about women during his opening monologue.

While reflecting on growing up on camera, he said: 'My voice changed on camera, my first kiss was on camera, and I can't actually believe I'm admitting this, but the first time I learned what a woman looks like down there - was on camera as well.'

The broadcast then cut to a clip of a young Wolfhard staring in shock at the the sci-fi show's main villain, a howling monster called the Demogorgon.

The joke did not sit well with some viewers who took to social media to express their disgust at the 'misogynistic', 'lazy' and 'sexist' joke. 

Yet this is far from the first time the late-night show has been criticised for making women the butt of the joke. 

Over its 50-year history, SNL has booked men as hosts for nearly 70 percent of its episodes, while the content has been branded misogynistic.

Last year, the show was forced to apologise to British actress Aimee Lou Wood after she slammed a 'mean' sketch that mocked her teeth. 

Aimee received an outpouring of support from fans after she was targeted in a sketch that saw Sarah Sherman wear huge prosthetic teeth while parodying her character in The White Lotus. 

In the sketch, titled The White Potus, it imagined the Trump family and various political figures on holiday at the famous retreat. 

Walton Goggins' character Rick was reimagined as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who was seen on a rambling rant debating they take 'all the fluoride out of the water'. 

The camera then cut to Aimee's character Chelsea - played by Sarah - with exaggerated buck teeth, who exclaimed: 'Fluoride? What's that?' 

In response, Aimee took aim at the 'cheap' joke, as she wrote: 'Such a shame cuz I had such a great time watching it a couple weeks ago. Yes, take the p**s for sure - that's what the show is about- but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way?'

She also shared messages of support from her followers, including a comment that read: 'It was a sharp and funny skit until it suddenly took a screeching turn into 1970's misogyny.' Aimee added: 'This sums up my view'. 

Scarlett Johansson was notably shocked when husband Colin Jost made a vulgar joke about her during the 2024 Christmas special. 

Colin, who shares a four-year-old son with wife Scarlett elicited a gasp from the audience when he quipped: 'Costco has removed the roast beef sandwich from its menu. 

'But I ain't trippin'. I've been eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid,' as the camera panned to Scarlett's face. 

Scarlett later said the gag was 'so vulgar' and 'I just can’t believe that they went there,' yet insisted that she had found it funny. 

Jennifer Aniston has previously revealed that she turned down the chance to join the cast in the Nineties, saying: 'I had this self-righteous attitude of, "I don’t know if women are treated the way they should be treated on this show.

'"It’s very male-dominated. I would love to be here if it was in the Gilda Radner days.’ 

She also branded SNL a 'boys club'.  

Meanwhile, comic legend Carol Burnett questioned if the reason she wasn't invited onto the show was to do with show creator Lorne Michaels didn't want a woman to do the honours. 

'I don’t know what I did to upset that man,' Carol told The New Yorker, asking: 'Do you think it’s misogynistic?'

Yet Michaels defended the show's record on diversity, telling NPR: 'We’ve been breaking those barriers from the very beginning.

'It didn’t come from any place of intent or meanness, it came from looking every year for the best people we can find.'

Jane Curtin was part of the inaugural 1975 cast and was famously branded an 'ignorant slut' in a skit with Dan Aykroyd.

She revealed in 2019 that the line still 'haunts' her but mused: 'It was a different time. It did not offend me. I’d hear it on the street. 

'But you’d get catcalls on the street all the time because you were a woman. So it was a part of life.' 

Jane added to The Hollywood Reporter of the 'sexist' humour: 'It was stunning because in the improv group I came from in Cambridge, [Massachusetts], there was no sexism. We were all equals; we all respected each other. 

'We talked about the importance of the Equal Rights Amendment. But by the time I got to SNL the Equal Rights Amendment didn’t pass, which was stunning to me. And I go into this world where they hadn’t even discussed an Equal Rights Amendment. 

'It wasn’t a part of their life; it didn’t affect them. So they were still continuing in that late Fifties, early Sixties kind of culture. They hadn’t evolved yet, and that’s the sad thing.' 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus agreed that SNL was a 'very sexist environment' when she joined the cast in the Eighties, adding: 'I didn’t do anything particularly great when I was there… I did not come out of SNL as any kind of name.'

However, she claimed thins were different when she returned to the show to host three times in 2006, 2007, and 2016, telling The New York Times: 'Since I’ve gone back, I can tell you it’s much more of an equal-opportunity environment.'

While the cast and hosts for SNL: UK have yet to be revealed there will no doubt be questions raised on whether the show can avoid any similar accusations. 

Daily Mail has contacted NBC and Sky for comment.