On 25 October, Saturday Night Live UK released a sketch parodying Wicked as an early-2000s Nollywood production, with Cynthia Erivo as Glinda, a flip of her role in the films, and Ayoade Bamgboye, as Elphaba. Draped in the fluffiest wigs and their best eyeliner, the pair travel to the city of LagOz to find the wizard in an apartment styled like a wealthy Igbo man’s home. The sketch leans into the campy, high-energy visuals of Nollywood trailers from that era, and it does so with obvious affection.

Old Nollywood has long shaped internet culture, from the Aki na Ukwa memes to the TikTok sounds lifted from our movies to the old Nollywood parties everyone seems to be hosting. Yet comedy about Nigerians has rarely tapped into that well of humour. We’ve remained the butt of the joke, with variations of the “Nigerian prince” played for stale laughs, as recently as Clash of the Thundermans, a Nickelodeon movie.

That is what makes this Saturday Night Live UK sketch stand out in the sea of mediocre Nigerian humour from foreign media. It pays homage to the culture it parodies, drawing on the era’s absurdity and acknowledging its cultural power. Its strength is in the details: the sound effects between scenes, the dramatic voice narrating the trailer, the moment Glinda and Elphaba almost kiss before turning their heads away, and the Bailey’s Irish cream served at the Wizard’s home, a drink Nigerian hosts bring out at every occasion.

The comedy works because of how popular these movies were in African and Caribbean communities, and because of Cynthia’s history with the Wicked films, especially the conversations about her chemistry with Ariana Grande during the press tour. The result is a Saturday Night Live UK sketch that laughs with us, not at us. It celebrates our movie culture without leaning on stereotypes, and it’s a reminder that specificity gets bigger laughs than the old stereotype ever did.