Woody Harrelson receives flak over COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy in 'SNL' monologue

Woody Harrelson returned to Saturday Night Live this weekend for the fifth time as a host, and he has already landed himself in a heated debate online.

Harrelson, who’s now joined the show’s Five-Timers Club, stirred up some controversy with his ‘COVID conspiracy theory’ jokes toward the end of his opening monologue.

The True Detective actor recalled reading the “craziest script” recently, and broke down the plot.

“So the movie goes like this: The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes,” Harrelson quipped.

“And people can only come out if they take the cartel’s drugs and keep taking them over and over.”

Then he delivered the punchline. “I threw the script away,” Harrelson joked. “I mean, who was going to believe that crazy idea? Being forced to do drugs? I do that voluntarily all day.”

The Zombieland actor’s joke seemingly referenced lockdown measures in 2020 to stop the spread of COVID and medically recommended vaccine booster shots.

Netizens were quick to respond to what appeared to be a conspiracy theory about the COVID-19. Twitter and Tesla owner Elon Musk reacted, “So based. Nice work.”

Replying to a user who tweeted for people to “get ready for the meltdowns” following the monologue, Musk wrote, “Maybe [the media] don’t realise that their propaganda is wrong?”

Others users added, “What on earth was this antivax nonsense,” another added, “So Woody Harrelson uses his SNL monologue to push his hostility to Covid vaccines? Really?”