Leslie Jones would be perfectly justified in removing herself from the internet, after a particularly heinous series of racist, misogynistic, and otherwise abusive attacks on her by online trolls. At one point, hackers went so far as to flood the comedian and Saturday Night Live cast member’s website with nude photos of her and private documents.
But despite temporarily shutting down her social media accounts, Jones has not let the bullies intimidate her—and for that she has become a hero to many. In response to her complaints, Twitter even took the unusual step of permanently suspending an alt-right figure, Milo Yiannopolous, who incited his followers to target Jones.
Tonight (Oct. 22), the Ghostbusters star appeared on the “Weekend Update” segment of SNL in a segment on cyberbullying. The hacking and releasing of her photos was “nothing,” she said. “Because I don’t know if y’all know this about me, but I ain’t shy. I keep my porn in a folder labeled ‘porn.’ If you want to see Leslie Jones naked, just ask.”
Here’s the video:
In a back and forth with “Weekend Update” anchor Colin Jost, she discusses what constitutes a real troll (a shovel-wielding bus passenger, for example), fantasizes about what she’d do if she could hack computers, and ends on a defiant note:
“Trust me,” she tells the audience. “At a certain point you stop being embarrassed and start being you. And I have been me for 49 years. Because the only person who can hack me is me.”
She was roundly applauded for her words on social media: