Amelia Dimoldenberg did not exactly ease Ed Sheeran into the weekend.

During her opening monologue on SNL UK, the Chicken Shop Date creator took a sharp swipe at the singer, describing one of the famous names she has encountered as a “world-famous, red-headed puppet with a hand up his arse telling him what to say.”

The screen behind her promptly displayed a picture of Elmo.

“No, the other one,” Dimoldenberg deadpanned.

Up came Sheeran, and the audience responded with laughter and cheers. It was a compact joke, but the timing gave it considerably more bite than a routine celebrity roast.

The Ed Sheeran joke landed in the middle of a controversy

Dimoldenberg’s jab came amid controversy surrounding Macklemore’s removal from Sheeran’s Loop Tour following the rapper’s pro-Palestinian remarks.

Sheeran has said the decision was not his.

“The promoter’s decision, not mine,” he maintained when addressing Macklemore coming off the tour.

That distinction is important, particularly because Dimoldenberg’s joke appeared to play directly with the idea of Sheeran being controlled by somebody else — hence the puppet comparison.

The monologue never needed to spell out the connection. The audience was left to do that work for itself, which is usually where this kind of joke is most effective.

SNL UK had already targeted Sheeran

This was not the first time SNL UK had made Sheeran part of the joke.

The show had already parodied him the previous week, portraying the singer as someone reluctant to take sides.

Dimoldenberg therefore wasn't introducing a completely new target. Instead, her monologue continued a line of comedy the programme had already established, this time with a considerably more visual punchline.

Elmo appearing first also gave the gag its necessary misdirection. Both are famously red-headed, although only one has spent decades with somebody's hand inside him. Usually, that would be enough to make the comparison unfair.

Apparently not on SNL UK.

Amelia Dimoldenberg was an obvious fit for the delivery

The joke also relied heavily on Dimoldenberg’s particular style.

The Chicken Shop Date creator has built her public persona around deliberately awkward interviews and an exceptionally dry delivery, often allowing pauses and understated reactions to carry as much weight as the words themselves.

Here, the construction was similarly economical: set up the mysterious red-headed celebrity, show Elmo, reject the obvious answer and reveal Sheeran.

There was no lengthy explanation afterwards. The laughter and cheers provided one.

Why the puppet line worked

In my view, the strongest part of the joke was that it did more than simply mock Sheeran's appearance. Without the surrounding controversy, comparing him with Elmo would be a fairly straightforward red-hair gag. The reference to a puppet being told what to say gave it another possible meaning, especially alongside Sheeran's insistence that Macklemore's removal was the promoter's decision. That does not establish that Sheeran lacked control over what happened, but it gave Dimoldenberg's punchline enough ambiguity to sting without requiring her to make that claim directly.

That ambiguity also means the joke can operate on two levels.

For anyone unaware of the Macklemore dispute, it still works as a deliberately rude celebrity joke built around Sheeran and Elmo. For viewers familiar with the controversy, the wording carries an obvious additional implication.

And after SNL UK had already parodied Sheeran over his reluctance to take sides, the latest joke suggests the singer remains very much within the show's comedic sights.

Dimoldenberg only needed a few seconds, one picture of Elmo and four words — “No, the other one” — to make that clear.