Mayim Bialik addresses an SNL sketch mocking her nose with prosthetics

Mayim Bialik is thinking about something questionable Saturday Night Live A drawing that mocks her nose with prosthetics.

in New article in diverseAnd the actress and Danger The host discusses her experience with parody — and how the physical component of parody is Drawn in 1994 Spoofing her sitcom blossom It inspired complex feelings. “The actress portraying me was dancing and stealing the camera and being hilarious,” she recalls, referring to Melanie Hutsell, who played Blossom in the sketch alongside Mike Myers and Sarah Gilbert. “But. She was wearing a prosthetic nose. In order to convey the fact that she was Blossom, she wore a big, fake nose.”

Bialik continues, “I don’t know if it was much bigger than my real nose and I don’t care to remember it. I remember it struck me as weird. And it confused me. No one else on the show had their features emulated.” In MAD magazine, everyone was caricatured, but in this parody show, it was only me who was highlighted. More specifically, it was my nose.”

Bialik explains why she hasn’t addressed painting publicly yet. “I never thought to talk about it and mostly tried to forget it,” she wrote. “I was hoping no one would notice. All my high school friends saw it.” SNL. It wasn’t accurate. They all saw it and I felt ashamed.”

Now, there is a lot of debate about Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose in his Leonard Bernstein biopic Artist, band leaderBialik thought it was appropriate to express his opinion on actors who use makeup to portray Jewish people. “Forty years later, I’m starting to hear people talking about ‘Jewface’ and, more recently, about Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein’s nose,” she wrote. “And I started looking at pictures of Bradley and Leonard and wondering if that was necessary. I don’t know how I feel. I don’t know if what I feel matters. I suppose how his family feels matters. But maybe not?” (Bernstein’s family has defended Cooper’s portrayal.)

“Girls all over the world used to tell me that they had never seen a Jewish girl like me on TV before they saw me on… blossom“A lot of people said they knew I was Jewish and that made them proud,” Bialik continues. That was very moving for me, and still is… I wonder how those girls felt when they saw an actress playing me with a comedic prosthetic nose. I wonder if this is different than Bradley Cooper playing someone famous. Does it matter?”

Bialik concludes with honest and multifaceted reflections. “I’ve had many conversations with myself about my nose in the past 40 years. I didn’t always love it, but I also never wanted to change it,” she writes. “My nose is definitely Jewish, and so am I. Is it because of my nose? Maybe. But I shouldn’t know because we’ll always be the same.”

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