Stranger jokes.
“Saturday Night Live” fans rushed to social media over the weekend to slam the sketch comedy over a surprising joke about two “Stranger Things” characters having sex.
The bit, titled “Mike in Manhattan,” featured “SNL” host Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler) alongside his former “Stranger Things” co-stars Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair) and Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson).
It gave fans a look at what the characters were up to 10 years after the events of the Netflix hit’s fifth and final season.
“And just like that, I was in a new Upside Down, New York, and it doesn’t take a hive mind to know that after you’ve dated an Eleven, even 10s fall short,” Wolfhard read outloud while sitting in a restaurant writing, much like Sarah Jessica Parker’s iconic Carrie Bradshaw in “Sex and the City.”
McLaughlin and Matarazzo then show up and, with Cosmopolitan cocktails in hand, sit down at the table to discuss their sex lives.
“Well, Max and I started off hot and heavy, right?” McLaughlin, as his “Stranger Things” character Lucas, shared. “Then, a couple of years in, she just lies there like she’s back in that coma.”
In “Stranger Things,” McLaughlin’s Lucas dated Sadie Sink’s Max Mayfield. Max ends up in a coma after confronting the villain Vecna at the end of Season 4 and remains in the coma for much of the show’s fifth season.
“SNL” and “Stranger Things” fans were less than impressed with the “disgusting” and “weird” joke about Lucas and Max’s sex life.
“What kind of game was going on on SNL? These jokes were so flat and disgusting,” one person tweeted. “Caleb jokes about Max and Lucas’ sex life, saying she’s in a coma. Dude, what the f–k?”
“They made a joke about Lucas having sex with unconscious Max on SNL,” added another. “What has this show come to?”
“Sorry, but that coma ‘joke’ was f–king weird to me,” commented a third, while a fourth shared, “That Max coma joke. SNL, you’re weird for that one!”
But that wasn’t the only “SNL” joke that left viewers up in arms on Saturday night, because the sketch went on to explain that Will Byers (played by Noah Schnapp) couldn’t join Mike, Lucas and Dustin because “his coming-out scene is still going on.”
The sketch then cut to the controversial scene in question, which came during the penultimate episode of the Netflix show’s final season and saw Will, during a monologue lasting roughly five minutes, come out to his family and friends.
“Guys, I’m gai-ning the courage to tell you the truth, and the truth is I’m gai-zing at all of your faces, and you should know that I like D…and D – Dungeons and Dragons, just like you guys,” Will, played in the “SNL” bit by cast member Jeremy Culhane, said.
Fans once again rushed to social media to express their disappointment with the joke.
“Just saw the latest episode of SNL, they made fun of Will’s coming out scene,” one person tweeted. “Well it’s not funny at all, not respectful at all. Especially the other three boys were present without Noah. I think they should apologize to both Noah Schnapp and Will Byers.”
“F–k SNL I’m so sick of queer ppl being the butt of everyone’s f–king joke,” fumed another. “Will Byers u deserved better, and sorry Noah that u had to go through hours of torture filming that coming out scene for everyone to treat it like a joke.”
“SNL making fun of will byers being gay and sexualising max mayfield all in one night,” commented a third. “Me if i ordered a homophobicburger with a side of misogynyfries.”
The Post has reached out to “SNL” for comment.
Other fake “sequels, prequels, requels and spinoffs” that “SNL” showcased during Saturday night’s episode included Joe Keery’s Steve Harrington as an inner-city teacher in “Strangerous Minds,” Natalia Dyer’s Nancy Wheeler in “The Wheeler Report,” and Joe Chrest’s Ted Wheeler in “Stranger Things: Oops! All Mike’s Dad.”
The sketch concluded with a dig at Conformity Gate, a viral and since-disproven conspiracy regarding a secret final episode of “Stranger Things” that some fans believed would be released on Jan. 7.
