Ariana DeBose fires back at critic of her 'SNL' performance

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Ariana DeBose has fired back at a critic of her ‘Saturday Night Live’ hosting debut.

The West Side Story star – who is dyslexic – got the date wrong during her opening monologue on the late-night sketch show, due to nerves, and she has hit back at a social media user who pointed out the mistake, insisting they had no idea how much “pressure” she was under fronting live primetime television.

In the clip posted on the official SNL Instagram page, Ariana says: “2020 has already been an exciting year,” and the troll commented: “She know its 2022 not 2020 right???? (sic)”

The 30-year-old star replied: “You try hosting SNL, reading cue cards with slight dyslexia (sic) and then get back to me brah. (sic)”

The critic took this as an opportunity to fight back and compared the actress to U.S. President Joe Biden – who according to some of his Republican political opponents is too old to be commander-in-chief – by suggesting Ariana was not qualified for the role.

They wrote: “Maybe get someone who isn’t on level with Joe Biden at reading since that’s a qualification to acting…reading lines.”

At this point, Ariana said: “Cool. You’re a troll. Bye.”

Regulars on SNL, including writer Julissa Arce defended the Prom star.

She wrote: “I thought it was part of the joke! Because you know it’s like 2020 all over again! Forget the haters! You were amazing!!!! (sic)”

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Kenan Thompson – who is the show’s longest-running cast member – commented: “Destroyed it!!!!”

Ariana – who plays Anita in Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed remake of Jerome Robbins’ 1961 musical classic – got to perform songs from the film with comedian Kate McKinnon.

And she quipped that West Side Story – which is inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – was “based on another classic tale of star-crossed lovers… ’90 Day Fiance.'”