That tongue-in-cheek joke didn’t go over well with everyone, but it fared significantly better than a 2012 sketch in which Fred Armisen, Cecily Strong, and Nasim Pedrad all played “peasant” Chinese iPhone factory workers. The sketch was meant to mock the privilege of the whiny American tech reporters. In other words, the Chinese characters were the heroes. But the thick accents, black wigs, and, in Pedrad’s case, stereotypical coke-bottle glasses obscured the excellent premise (and it was excellent!) with a cringe-worthy presentation. (And let’s not get started on John Belushi’s Samurai.)

But the fact that S.N.L. is now at least addressing the issue with self-aware jokes for Villaseñor and Yoshimura means that the show could be on its way to rectifying the issue. A 2013 sketch where Kerry Washington famously had to play all the black women both living in and visiting the White House not only acknowledged S.N.L.’s lack of black women in the cast, but also pre-dated the hiring of Sasheer Zamata by only three months. (With Zamata in the cast, by the way, S.N.L. did not have to outsource the role of Nyota Uhura in this week’s Star Trek sketch, as it did in 1976.)

The desire for a more inclusive S.N.L. cast is not merely a case of liberal whining. When the show diversifies its cast, it’s better able to provide piercing social commentary. This has been especially true since S.N.L. added Zamata, Leslie Jones, and Michael Che just a few years ago. Sketches on issues like #OscarsSoWhite or the racial tensions of the 2016 election wouldn’t have been possible without them in the cast. And “Black Jeopardy” sketch on the latter—co-written by Che and co-starring Zamata, Jones and Tom Hanks—was one of the smartest things S.N.L. has done in years.

But S.N.L. has had to sit out the recent hot-button discussion on whitewashing and Asian representation in the likes of Iron Fist, Ghost in the Shell, and more. After all, you can’t mock the thing you yourself are guilty of. Here’s hoping S.N.L. is better poised to join the conversation next year, and that in future Star Trek sketches, the show won’t have to lean on a forty-year-old inside joke to find its Sulu.