A Steve Martin Saturday Night Live skit from 1978 made the rounds online this week and was widely memed after many accused Generation Z of not getting the humor in it. The “King Tut” skit features Martin dancing around in a campy ancient Egyptian costume and was extremely popular at the time. The 44th anniversary of the skit was last week.

Comedian #SteveMartin debuts his novelty song #KingTut on #SaturdayNightLive 44 years ago today on April 22, 1978. pic.twitter.com/NoCCVbZAeg

— Silver Age Television 📺 (@SilverAgeTV) April 22, 2022

If you were alive in the 1970s (like me) you'll remember the obsessive pop culture phenomenon that was the US national tour of the King Tut exhibit. Steve Martin wrung out a socially critical bit about that Tut-mania in a song; circulating clips without the intro are a disservice https://t.co/CbWrj7jNkk

— Bonibaru | are you sure? (@Bonibaru) April 23, 2022

I find the current discourse about Steve Martin’s King Tut sing a perfect example of why “you couldn’t do X today” to be a worthless point. You couldn’t do King Tut today, but it not because it’s distasteful, it’s because the cultural significance of King Tut is much less now.

— Ian Weir (@gannjerrod) April 23, 2022

Many users across social media platforms like Twitter posted outragedly in response to purported Gen Z attempts to “cancel” Steve Martin for the King Tut skit.

Y’all think tik tok is hilarious but don’t get king tut, okay

— Alexandra Daddario (@AADaddario) April 23, 2022

The fact that Steve Martín is trending because a generation has decided to take issue with a 3 minute King Tut sketch from SNL in the 70s tells me 3 things.

The Right AND Left are losing their ability to humor.

We’re all WAY to sensitive.

Steve Martin is still awesome.

— The Dread Pirate Mark Brooks (@MarkBrooksArt) April 25, 2022

Alongside these, many also mocked Generation Z's sense of humor in various posts and memes.

People complaining about how they don’t “get” the Steve Martin King Tut bit are gonna be real mad when one day their kids sit stone faced through that David S Pumpkins sketch.

— Matt Lieb? (@mattlieb) April 23, 2022

Child, nobody cares if you don't think the King Tut sketch is funny. It was funny to us then and, to us, it still is. Call me in 30 years when your children are screaming at you to turn off the Eric Andre videos.

— Ty Burr (@tyburr) April 23, 2022

However, the discourse seemed rather one-sided: no tweet or other social media post calling Steve Martin or the King Tut video racist trended anywhere. As many observers pointed out, the defenders of Martin and King Tut seemed to be responding to an attack that had never happened.

Save your time. I just scrolled through the entirety of Twitter and found no one is actually offended by Steve Martin’s King Tut bit.

— Debbie (@skitdebbies) April 23, 2022

Some users called the "King Tut" kerfuffle an instance of "manufactured outrage," speculating that right-wingers had supposedly planted the story to discredit opponents on the left. Others blamed Twitter and social media in general for amplifying an argument that wasn't an argument.

Thousands of tweets slamming those who criticized Steve Martin and his "King Tut" sketch. Zero tweets actually criticizing Steve Martin for his "King Tut" sketch. Manufactured outrage is 100% a right-wing thing.

— Copperdomebodhi (@Copperdomebodhi) April 25, 2022

One person says "Today's Left would probably cancel Steve Martin for 'King Tut.'"

Which becomes "The Left is cancelling Steve Martin."

Then the Actual Left wonders why Steve Martin is trending.

Rinse and repeat every day for the last 10+ years of Twitter. https://t.co/50ncYpaolT

— Mike Barklage (@mbarklage) April 25, 2022

According to some users, a possible source for this week's controversy may have been a 2017 incident at Reed College in Portland, Oregon having to do with the "King Tut" video. In an article about a broader anti-racism protest at Reed, The Atlantic quoted one activist student who said when the Steve Martin video was shown during a lecture, they found it offensive. This quote circulated widely at the time.

🤣🤣🤣 A woke Oregon college classroom called Steve Martin's indelible King Tut skit "racist."

Hollywood giant David Mamet – who directed Steve's brilliant turn (playing against type) in THE SPANISH PRISONER – is on to something. pic.twitter.com/lfs3UhbKud

— TheFusionAge (thefusionage) April 25, 2022

It did happen, they just couldn’t get enough steam to get the denunciation thing aired until now. https://t.co/dOPWu7yTUr

— Joe Suhrada (@JSuhrada) April 25, 2022

Steve Martin fans, however, can rest assured that no serious attempt has been made to cancel "King Tut" (just as one year ago, no serious attempt was made to cancel Eminem) and Generation Z seems more interested in doing its own thing anyway.

a lot of people are posting the steve martin king tut video without the important historical context that one time i played it during a 6th grade class presentation about egypt to absolute silence

— Allie Rubin (@a_rubin) April 23, 2022