One of the most popular reality competition series in recent years is The Traitors, which has both a UK and American version. The show portrays a cutthroat scenario where a group of people must gather in a castle. (Alan Cumming hosts the American iteration, Claudia Winkleman the British.) In this locale, they slowly determine who among the group is a “faithful,” and who must be removed from the competition. The UK version is particularly popular. So it makes sense that the fledgling SNL UK would make a sketch parodying the series mercilessly. Only in this version, they’re not looking for a traitor. Nope, they’re looking for a giant crab man. You can watch the full sketch, featuring SNL UK guest host Riz Ahmed, below:
The sketch points out frequent claims that contestants on The Traitors display unconscious racial bias. Many viewers have noted how frequently people of color get voted out much earlier than the white contestants. In the sketch, we see the oblivious contestants of the show Great Big Crab Man try to unmask who among them is a human crustacean. Somehow, they point to everyone except for the one dude (George Fouracres), who looks like an actual giant crab. Instead, they falsely blame and eliminate one person of color after another, instead of the obvious crab among them.
In the sketch’s conclusion, Riz Ahmed’s character Imran finds himself ousted, despite the big ol’ obvious crab guy sitting right there. We must say, we love that the titular Great Big Crab Man’s given name in the episode is Sebastian. Yes, just like the crab character in The Little Mermaid. Viewers are already citing this The Traitors sketch as the best one yet from SNL UK. A lot of people wondered if SNL UK could live up to its iconic American counterpart. But with sketches like this one, we’d say they’re off to a great start.