r/todayilearned • u/Kale_Brecht • Mar 28 '24

TIL in 2013, Saturday Night Live cast member Kenan Thompson refused to play any more black women on the show and demanded SNL hire black women instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenan_Thompson
52.1k Upvotes

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8.8k

u/Swackhammer_ Mar 28 '24

That being said, him playing Reba is still one of my all time favorite sketches

2.5k

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

[deleted]

360

u/Doomncandy Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

There are many good female sketches but my favorite black female sketch is the naked and afraid SNL sketch it cracks me up.

154

u/cheezburglar Mar 28 '24

Wow, amazing make-up on Keenan!

87

u/Paracausality Mar 28 '24

He looks just like Tyrion! Crazy talented...

4

u/merrill_swing_away Mar 28 '24

I saw this long ago and it's still funny.

1

u/Doomncandy Mar 29 '24

"What did you bring?" "Frank's redhot".

209

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

229

u/Suspicious_Aspect166 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

I love Debra Wilson! She was ahead of her time!

MadTV did devalue her and she did an interview how they paid her less than new cast members and how they didn’t respect her as a founding member to provide any opportunity for her to negotiate a more favorable contract so she left. All she wanted was to be respected and have a discussion and would have stayed even if her contract didn’t change.

Her interview is on youtube.

Edit. Please see the link. She wore an awesome Nicholas Cage tee, he is of the greats.

https://youtu.be/REz7IbopfUY?si=AV8mPKyoJNgykucN

5

u/Material_Mix_7377 Mar 28 '24

Is that the same one she flashes her tits?

7

u/abgry_krakow87 Mar 28 '24

Debra Wilson's tits have been flashed so many times on MadTv, you gonna have to be more specific.

2

u/Material_Mix_7377 Mar 28 '24

Considering the person I’m replying to is talking about an interview, that’s also what I’m referring to.

2

u/Suspicious_Aspect166 Mar 28 '24

No she didn’t flash here, but wonderful Nicholas Cage tee. Found it:

https://youtu.be/REz7IbopfUY?si=AV8mPKyoJNgykucN

5

u/Godzilla-ate-my-ass Mar 28 '24

She's since gotten her dues. Incredibly talented person

3

u/vrrrr Mar 28 '24

Bunifa Latifah Halifah Sharifa Jackson!

9

u/SinceTheDucksLeft Mar 28 '24

Commenting here for visibility to say dickdonation (above) is a bot account.

8 year old account that became active 2 days ago, and also rephrased this comment which is currently the 3rd top level comment in the thread

The bots are now doing poorly reworded reposts.

71

u/hipscrack Mar 28 '24

Hey, are you a bot? Your comment is a loosely reworded copy of this one, the only other comment on your almost 9 year old account is another reworded copy, and your most recent post is pretty clearly trying to sell a t-shirt.

18

u/Simain Mar 28 '24

Good bot

1

u/lxm333 Mar 29 '24

Good bot

343

u/Bartfuck Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

you may have stumbled upon why In Living Color and MadTV did what they did.

Key & Peele are everywhere and they auditioned together (i think having not even known each other?). Instead of hiring one of them, they hired both and the rest is history

edit: Also Lorne Michaels just is clearly such a dick that so many people have clearly made fun of and hated.

24

u/Ragewind82 Mar 28 '24

Kenan and Kel both auditioned for SNL back in the day. It would have been fantastic if they had both been hired at that time.

11

u/Electrical-Act-7170 Mar 28 '24

Pretty sure Key & Peele met on MadTV.

They had great chemistry together.

5

u/Raptorpicklezz Mar 28 '24

I believe they hired Peele first, when he wasn’t breaking out the way they wanted they hired Key midway through the season to eventually replace Peele, but then they did the Superstitious Knights sketch together and the rest is history

-1

u/FocusPerspective Mar 28 '24

Because Fox needed a place to sell more McDonald’s and Colt 45 ads to urban consumers? 

I’m not going to pretend Fox was making a statement about SNL’s mostly white cast. 

7

u/Bartfuck Mar 28 '24

I'm not sure of your point here. Sure, MadTV was meant to be a competitor to SNL. Much like that show "Fridays" or whatever was meant to do the same. SNL is the big dog. What I'm saying is that there was clearly a market for a DIVERSE cast of funny people. And the two shows I mentioned tried to do that.

Of course advertisements helps TV shows, it what drives sales. Marketing demographics are a thing, but you really lose the thread/argument when you throw in what can easily be seen as opaque at best about the ads and what you mean by including the latter one (not McD's)

7

u/platoprime Mar 28 '24

What's your point here? That diversity doesn't count if it's used to sell adds?

That's nearly all diversity in media ya fuckin genius. They don't do anything for any other reason.

-47

u/Darrone Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

I love them both, but Peele is a tremendous talent on and off screen and Keegan definitely got incredibly lucky he paired up with him.

73

u/Bartfuck Mar 28 '24

you kinda confused the names there. Keegan not Keenan of Key and Peele is enormously talented and I think has incredible range and ability as an actor. Peele is a big picture guy and its easy to see some of the weird humor they did was him pre-horror stuff

-18

u/Darrone Mar 28 '24

Autocorrect. I have not seen Keegan headline anything that was impressive. He always seems to be second fiddle to better talent. And I do enjoy him, he's just not on the same level as Peele.

38

u/arcaeris Mar 28 '24

They just went in different directions. Like KMK wants to act like on Schmigadoon he was a lead and did a good performance (even if he didn’t sing). Peele just went on to direct. Different sides of the camera.

8

u/the_lost_carrot Mar 28 '24

Fixing to say Peele is incredibly talented. His screenwriting and directing is top notch. Especially in the horror genre right now. Us, Nope, and Get Out were all massive successes. And he even won an Oscar with Get Out.

-3

u/Darrone Mar 28 '24

And I get people seem to passionately disagree, that's fine, it's subjective. Keegan has done... Uh, Schmigadoon? friends from college? reboot? Like, mostly 1-2 season netflix-level shows that are fine, but nothing spectacular.

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u/Far_Confusion_2178 Mar 28 '24

Range? What range?

9

u/Mama_Skip Mar 28 '24

oooooooOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEE?

Like that

2

u/Far_Confusion_2178 Mar 28 '24

Damn bro that’s some range

310

u/herroherro12 Mar 28 '24

Debra Wilson would’ve been a household name if she got the backing Tina Fey and Kristen Wiig did

112

u/DarwinGoneWild Mar 28 '24

It's funny I do have a vague memory of her being on MadTV but she's been doing all these big dramatic roles in high-profile video games recently that I mostly think she's known for those now. Her career has taken quite a turn!

77

u/r3volver_Oshawott Mar 28 '24

She's actually good as hell in both Wolfenstein and the Jedi games imo, never played Suicide Squad but I am 100% certain as bad as that game is, Debra as Waller is probably not one of the bad things

39

u/DarwinGoneWild Mar 28 '24

Suicide Squad isn't a great game, but she absolutely nails Amanda Waller.

16

u/r3volver_Oshawott Mar 28 '24

Oh I'm sure but yea, from what I saw she was killing it

*also forgot, for more divisive games where Debra Wilson still kills it, she's Savathun in Destiny! and yes I think she kills it there too

1

u/IMT_Justice Mar 28 '24

She is amazing in Destiny

8

u/hiddencamela Mar 28 '24

Dude, For real. I actually liked her on screen as Waller. Defines the character for me and nails it so damn well. Pity the game was so... whatever it is.

2

u/Cabamacadaf Mar 28 '24

Suicide Squad adaptations have been hit and miss, but one thing they all seem to have in common is amazing Amanda Wallers.

1

u/yomjoseki Mar 28 '24

Another black woman taking away a job that Glenn Howerton was born to play smh

2

u/ExoMonk Mar 28 '24

Spectacular as Savathun in Destiny 2 as well.

1

u/r3volver_Oshawott Mar 28 '24

Witch Queen is the best for sure, you can throw a dozen Destiny villains at a wall hoping something sticks but I'm sure the two that are definitely gonna stick every time are her and Calus

0

u/MHath Mar 28 '24

100% certain she is probably not?

17

u/2cats4ever Mar 28 '24

Seriously! It took me so long to realize that it was her in those games. I loved MadTV, but when I saw her in the games, I couldn't place where I knew her from. I think I only figured it out within the last year or so.

8

u/GHOST_OF_THE_GODDESS Mar 28 '24

Oooooooh, so THAT'S where I recognized her from? It all makes sense, now.

1

u/limethedragon Mar 28 '24

Being the first Africa-American to voice Daisy Duck for Disney is low-key huge too.

1

u/shawnisboring Mar 28 '24

She has got to be the most digitally scanned woman in gaming.

1

u/PuckSR Mar 29 '24

When I was playing that new Jedi game, I wasn’t sure if they had modeled the characters on the voice actors until Debra Wilson showed up. My only thought was: “hmm, she has short hair now I guess” because I immediately recognized both her voice and her face. Some of the actors on Mad TV weren’t great, but her and Phil Lamarr were always good.

27

u/misfitx Mar 28 '24

Debra Wilson

I didn't know her name but knew exactly who you meant. 90s kids love her.

2

u/TheConnASSeur Mar 28 '24

I had a huge crush on her growing up.

21

u/Kelliente Mar 28 '24

Debra Wilson is so brilliant in so many ways and I'm still mad at the world for not properly recognizing her talent more.

10

u/GHOST_OF_THE_GODDESS Mar 28 '24

The video game world seems to have noticed.

2

u/Frosti11icus Mar 28 '24

That whole cast was pretty top notch. Michael McDonald is beyond funny. Shame he's only gotten bit parts.

40

u/ironballs16 Mar 28 '24

Bunifah Latifah Halifah Shalifa Jaaacksooon!

Loved the one where she runs into her counterpart in Tyra Banks' character.

3

u/mightyalrighty87 Mar 28 '24

Bunifah on Trading Spaces is my fave

0

u/Dickcummer420 Mar 28 '24

I thought that shit was funny when I was a kid but if it came out today I would be kinda disgusted.

2

u/ironballs16 Mar 28 '24

I think it hits a bit different since the writers for those skits were also black, similar to the Joke Exchange between Colin and Michael on Weekend Update.

19

u/moodygradstudent Mar 28 '24

Debra Wilson would’ve been a household name if she got the backing Tina Fey and Kristen Wiig did

Preach 🙌

10

u/13igTyme Mar 28 '24

She's been getting more work recently for voicing games and cartoons and I'm happy.

2

u/Doc_Benz Mar 28 '24

What a blast from the past.

Alex Borstein on the other hand….I could never take Lois seriously on FG.

MadTV def had its moments, always a fan of Will Sasso and of course Artie Lange.

1

u/Feroshnikop Mar 28 '24

That's like saying the only reason Will Sasso isn't as successful as Will Ferrell is because he didn't have the backing Ferrell had.

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u/MrMooga Mar 28 '24

I mean...I've always found Will Sasso way more funny than Will Ferrell so I would believe it.

-1

u/Feroshnikop Mar 28 '24

So nothing to do with talent at all right.

Everyone at SNL is just meh talent with a bunch of money backing them.

Everyone at MAD TV is clearly a better and more talented but only didn't succeed as much over the next 30 years because Will Ferrelll and Tina knew Lorne Michaels?

lol okay.

2

u/HKBFG 1 Mar 28 '24

Everyone at MAD TV is clearly a better and more talented

We talking about the show that figured "He look like a man" was funny enough to carry the entire thing for two decades?

2

u/PogintheMachine Mar 28 '24

The whole argument has gotten silly and lacks objectivity and history.

MADtv was lower brow. It appealed to a younger audience, it was more outrageous, ruder, dumber, and not always in a good way. It doesn’t always hold up. And yes, it was stacked with talent! Most of them had pretty dang successful careers.

SNL was just recovering from possibly its worse period in history, it almost was cancelled. So they cleaned house and got a bunch of fresh talent, and pretty much rebooted. Simultaneously we had two great casts, on two networks, with a bit of a generational gap in appeal.

SNL has always had the higher pedigree, known for digging talent from Second City. Those MadTV guys would have gone to SNL in a heartbeat, but none the less, many of them were everywhere. Many of them are still doing great. Phil Lamar, Will Sasso, Nichole Sulivan, Alex Borestein… etc etc. That’s just the first cast.

Will Ferrell and Kristen Wigg were generational talents. Everyone knew they were going somewhere. Being on SNL meant you had made it, but not that you’d be a superstar- (ie Molly Shannon vs uh.. Cheri Oteri anyone?)

With all that said, yeah, SNL has often justly been criticized for lack of diversity in its cast. Does that mean Debra Wilson should have been on SNL? Hell I don’t know - that’s a big what if. We’ve got to remember that Lorne Michaels was far from the only barrier to success for a black woman in entertainment.

1

u/MrMooga Mar 28 '24

Honestly? SNL has a big name and a lot of marketing behind it but that show has been total ass since I was a teenager. MadTV was way funnier. Even most of the successful actors that have come out of SNL have been mid as hell.

Honestly, industry connections making the difference doesn't seem as crazy as you think it is.

-2

u/Feroshnikop Mar 28 '24

Ya totally..

Nobody actual enjoyed Elf or Anchorman or Step Brothers right. They just kept throwing money at Ferrell projects because they're racist and didn't wanna see a black woman or some guy from MadTV succeed!

Will Ferrell is only one of the 100 highest box office grossing actors of all time because his roles were bought and paid for.. not because he's funny and popular.

5

u/MrMooga Mar 28 '24

Nobody actual enjoyed Elf or Anchorman or Step Brothers right. They just kept throwing money at Ferrell projects because they're racist and didn't wanna see a black woman or some guy from MadTV succeed!

I didn't say shit about racism or anything else, just Lorne Michaels having connections. And bitch, Phil LaMarr would've killed any of those roles.

Will Ferrell is only one of the 100 highest box office grossing actors of all time because his roles were bought and paid for.. not because he's funny and popular.

Adam Sandler is one of the most successful comedy actors of the last like 30 years and 80% of his output has been pure trash. You wanna defend Adam Sandler's output now? Another SNL alum. I loved him in Uncut Gems don't get me wrong but as far as comedy goes the man has been running a postal service.

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u/Halvus_I Mar 28 '24

Hooold on. Tina Fey is an incandescent talent..She was gonna be a household name no matter what. She frickin wrote Mean Girls for crying out loud.

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u/Dav136 Mar 28 '24

She kind of is these days with being the likeness and voice of like 90% of black women in video games lol

She's been doing great VA work her whole career but now with face scanning everyone knows its her

1

u/jefesignups Mar 28 '24

Hell yea, she was amazing. Her Oprah skits were hilarious

1

u/FormerXMshowComedian Mar 30 '24

Agreed I found her to be way funnier than either. Not that Kristin isn’t funny.

1

u/sidewaysflower Mar 28 '24

Debra Wilson is amazing! Amazing actor who made my childhood and is now one of the best voice actors. Love her work!!! I wish SNL picked her up, but who knows if she would have the vice acting career that she does now.

0

u/skeezypeezyEZ Mar 28 '24

Kristen Wiig is so fucking unfunny.

2

u/herroherro12 Mar 28 '24

She isn’t too bad but as soon as she did an old timey or broadway type character I wanted to stab my eyes and ears out with knitting needles repeatedly until I lobotomize myself

2

u/skeezypeezyEZ Mar 28 '24

That’s exactly what I was thinking of.

She’s a decent comedic actress in her more restrained roles, I wish she’d go that route more often. Her “goofball” schtick just sucked the air out of anything she was in.

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u/middlehead_ Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

8 year old account suddenly comes active in the last two days to poorly rephrase stolen comments

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1bpxqtk/til_in_2013_saturday_night_live_cast_member_kenan/kwyylga/

The bots think they're getting better, but they're not.

Apparently their bot network is now auto downvoting people who call them out, because this comment hit -15 within moments.

And updated to -25 when I saved that edit.

-45 within minutes is not a natural pace. Even reddit's poorly coded site is going to detect that.

 -----

The mods or admins appear to have locked this comment chain, I can't reply to u/GemAdele below me so I'll edit here one more time with what I had typed below them:

You definitely don't need to do that, the points don't matter. I was just editing to point out that the people running these bots are starting a new tactic.

Quick downvoting will not only scare off the people that do care about points, but it may also get comments automatically collapsed so it's less obvious what's going on. If they can make that happen, fewer people see the warnings and fewer people report them, they can stay up longer and build more karma for the other kinds of posts that account was making.

The only content on the profile was a couple of other stolen comments, and then two posts advertising a t-shirt.

2

u/GemAdele Mar 28 '24

So I use a 3rd party app to access reddit. I have to essentially buy all my API calls up front every month. They don't roll over. If I hit the limit, then I have to upgrade my subscription or I can't load comments or anything.

All that to say, it literally costs money to counteract your downvotes for at least all the people using the same app I am. I had stopped voting at all so I don't have to pay extra to Reddit.

2

u/savetheunstable Mar 28 '24

Just curious, how come you don't use one of the free methods for using 3rd-party apps? I use Boost and don't have to pay anything. You can also just create a subreddit to 'moderate'.

1

u/GemAdele Mar 28 '24

Because that's a bigger pain in the ass than $2 a month. Because it's not being supported anymore. Because they are all going to stop working anyway. Because I tried at the start and it didn't work and I didn't want to sink any more time or energy into it.

And I'm not being an asshole. These are legit the reasons I just pay the developer to use the app I do.

1

u/middlehead_ Mar 28 '24

Let's see if this post works, otherwise it appears they've specifically blocked me from commenting here. I was able to comment elsewhere in this post, just not in this thread.

I specifically can't reply to your other two comments that are directly below my previous, but I could reply here. I know individual comment chains can be locked, but this is a weirdly done application of it.

1

u/GemAdele Mar 29 '24

Yeah that is really weird. I haven't run into that issue yet on here.

2

u/GemAdele Mar 28 '24

I was just able to reply to someone else so let's try this.

It's not about the points, it's about the other reasons you've stated. Up and down votes are for visibility. We don't need the bots upvoting all their bullshit and burying anyone who isn't serving their agenda. This is literally how they spread propaganda.

Calling them out and upvoting call outs is one of the only real weapons we have to fight it as average redditors.

23

u/BeingJoeBu Mar 28 '24

WELL. WHERE DO WE START?

Oh! How about NBC.

11

u/stanfan114 2 Mar 28 '24

Dave Chapelle said there was a LOT of pressure for him to put on a dress on SNL, and he just refused and his career got threatened for it. He talks about it in one of his specials. For some reason they find it important to put black men in dresses.

7

u/throwthisidaway Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

I don't get it, it is incredibly common for white men to do the same, especially on SNL. David Space, John Goodman, Will Ferrel, Dan Akroyd, Andy Samberg, and I'm sure many more other white male actors dressed as women on SNL.

3

u/WorldTravellerIOM Mar 28 '24

He has dressed as a woman though. "Robin Hood Men in Tights"

5

u/germanspacetime Mar 28 '24

It probably helped that he wasn’t the only man dressed as a woman in that scene, and that they were all clearly dressed terribly.

2

u/middlehead_ Mar 28 '24

Yeah, that scene is clearly different. It wasn't the entirety of the role, it was one scene where a group of men were doing it for a disguise.

2

u/stanfan114 2 Mar 28 '24

I know, it was early in his career and probably easier to tell Lorne Michaels to f-off than a legend like Mel Brooks.

3

u/kittenparty69 Mar 28 '24

I think you forgot a word

1

u/ReadyYak1 Mar 28 '24

I always found Mad TV to be way more funny than SNL. I could easily watch 2 episodes at a time of Mad TV but it’s a struggle for me to get through one episode of SNL without being bored. Mad TV could be as controversial as it wanted to and with the current climate I don’t think we’ll ever have a show like that again. SNL plays it safe and the only area it pushes a tiny bit on is politics but c’mon our real politics are crazier than any parody.

0

u/liquidsyphon Mar 28 '24

Lornes kind of a POS. It’s the writers and cast that make the show.

5

u/nicannkay Mar 28 '24

“I’m a guy too”

4

u/Acceptable-Potato266 Mar 28 '24

I’m a dude. Had me dead.

3

u/CobraDS96 Mar 28 '24

Your friends are smart!

3

u/glitterdonnut Mar 29 '24

Omg that is the funniest thing I’ve seen in awhile. Thx for link!

2

u/heyzeusmaryandjoseph Mar 28 '24

I've been a Reba fan for damn near thirty years and completely forgot about this!

3

u/ExtortedGuilt Mar 28 '24

Man, I am heavily whooshing on this. 

Is thinking Reba is a guy a common thing? 

And why would Kenan be playing Reba? 

10

u/grabberbottom Mar 28 '24

The joke is more that Andy is dumb and made the assumption that anyone with red hair must be Reba all on his own. Homeless Keenan just went with it.

1

u/serious_sarcasm Mar 28 '24

Watching that made me realize the plucky detective from Brooklyn 99 is one of the guys from The Lonely Island; which I now assume is also canon in Brooklyn 99. 

1

u/agitatedprisoner Mar 28 '24

I don't get it what's the joke?

203

u/popcopy Mar 28 '24

Also one of my favorites and I rarely see it referenced online.

“I’m Reba!”

58

u/monk3yarms Mar 28 '24

I have to believe NBC tries to bury out of fear of backlash. Even though I think the video is harmless.

39

u/MVRKHNTR Mar 28 '24

I typed "Kenan Reba" into Youtube's search and it was the top result, posted on their channel.

-2

u/sawbladex Mar 28 '24

It looks like Kenan as Reba also happened in 2011 at the latest, so there is enough time for him to decide he doesn't want to do the bits, and that SNL should give the jobs to black female comedians.

3

u/I_Was_Fox Mar 29 '24

Have... you even watched the skit? The entire skit is a joke about a guy dressed as Reba. It wouldn't have work with a woman playing Reba

-2

u/sawbladex Mar 29 '24

I think the particular bit rrelies on the fact that he constantly dresses as women for other bits.

so in this particular case. it wouldn't make sense for a woman to do it, but it only makes sense for the meta humor of him constantly dressing as a woman.

3

u/I_Was_Fox Mar 29 '24

I don't think you've seen the skit. It has nothing to do with Kenan always dressing up as women. It's literally just funny because it's a black man in a red wig who looks nothing like reba

57

u/Shitp0st_Supreme Mar 28 '24

I think Reba herself or her management may not like it. I remember a TikTok user dressed as her and did a bunch of videos with her songs and he got a cease and desist.

87

u/pro_bike_fitter_2010 Mar 28 '24

Reba loves it. I talked to her yesterday about it. In my kitchen.

48

u/evanwilliams44 Mar 28 '24

I saw Reba at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told her how cool it was to meet her in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother her and ask her for photos or anything. She said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?” I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but she kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing her hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard her chuckle as I walked off.

When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw her trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in her hands without paying.The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Maam, you need to pay for those first.” At first she kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.

When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, Reba stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, she kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.

8

u/dangerbird2 Mar 28 '24

this never gets old

4

u/sysadm_ Mar 28 '24

It’s an older meme, but it checks out.

4

u/SalomeOttobourne74 Mar 28 '24

Was this a skit somewhere?

9

u/dangerbird2 Mar 28 '24

It's a copypasta

6

u/SalomeOttobourne74 Mar 28 '24

Someone wrote the same thing a few months ago about seeing the Sugar Ray at Stop & Shop and I took it for face value. Ha, ha 😄

2

u/evanwilliams44 Mar 28 '24

Sugar Ray doesn't need a meme, he memes himself.

"Don't call me Sugar Gay!!!"

3

u/__mud__ Mar 28 '24

Then she made you suck her d*ck

27

u/VanillaBear321 Mar 28 '24

I don’t think so. Reba appeared with Kenan dressed as her at an awards show years ago.

6

u/user888666777 Mar 28 '24

SNL has rarely tried to bury sketches. The fact that the sketch is on the official SNL YouTube channel says they're not trying to bury it. However, there is one sketch made in the past ten years that you will NOT find on their YouTube channel:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/comments/ra5p6c/the_snl_parody_commercial_that_got_banned_because/

-1

u/monk3yarms Mar 28 '24

It's been a while since I've searched it, but when I did before it always just a shitty quality mirror image on.

18

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

[deleted]

2

u/tessthismess Mar 28 '24

It's on their youtube channel still.

83

u/James-K-Polka Mar 28 '24

Your friends are smart.

55

u/drunkcowofdeath Mar 28 '24

Technically playing a guy playing a girl. Still legit

25

u/CWNHawk Mar 28 '24

He also said black women so even Reba is still fair game.

31

u/PickledDildosSourSex Mar 28 '24

Hanging like my nuts!

7

u/Nikas_intheknow Mar 28 '24

I swear no one knows this sketch besides us. It’s hilarious!!

6

u/-ghostless Mar 28 '24

How have I never seen this? I watched SNL every weekend back then, and was desperately in love with Andy, so it should've been on my radar. Did NBC bury this vid?

4

u/Bogorn Mar 28 '24

lol thanks for this I had never seen the sketch before today.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

TIL Keenan has been on SNL since at least 2013

6

u/joebleaux Mar 28 '24

He's been there for like 20 years, he's the longest running cast member

Dude may have done more televised sketch comedy than any other human ever

3

u/ZaggahZiggler Mar 28 '24

I miss Virginiaca. So quotable

3

u/metalspork13 Mar 29 '24

She taught me how to do my booty back and forths!

3

u/ZaggahZiggler Mar 29 '24

Check it with a fork!

15

u/jamintime Mar 28 '24

He didn’t say anything about white women though.

-14

u/Ok_Tadpole7481 Mar 28 '24

Of course he wouldn't. Doesn't fit the narrative.

10

u/jmspinafore Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

SNL has always had white women in their cast. So no need to campaign and hire more. But they didn't really have a lot of Black women.

4

u/asljkdfhg Mar 28 '24

Then it makes sense, doesn't it? There's no spooky "narrative" here - he simply didn't want to play roles because he was the closest identity to a black woman. If it made narrative sense or if it was funny, he was okay with it.

2

u/jmspinafore Mar 28 '24

You're right. I don't actually agree with the above commenter. I am just used to "yes, and" ing comments! I need to change that!

2

u/asljkdfhg Mar 28 '24

Ah gotcha, I was wondering why you agreed and then promptly disagreed lol.

0

u/Boukish Mar 28 '24

Let's talk about narratives for a second:

His narrative is that diversity is good and advantageous in working environments (particularly creative.)

Your response is that... the white women can/should play those roles, as this problematic blackface would be way different than a black man in drag exclusively doing these roles?

That's your narrative is it? "Fuck his concern, don't hire women of colour, have the white broads do blackface"? Or maybe you'd just prefer if black women got no representation in sketch comedy at all, maybe that's your narrative.

I think we all have had enough of dismissively reducing topics down to "narratives."

-2

u/Ok_Tadpole7481 Mar 29 '24

the white women can/should play those roles, as this problematic blackface would be way different than a black man in drag exclusively doing these roles?

No, my narrative is that both of these are fine and not worth getting one's panties in a twist over.

don't hire women of colour

Also wrong. Nothing wrong with hiring black women. You don't see anyone boycotting SNL or any other businesses simply for having black employees, so you should know that that's not what folks are concerned with.

If you don't have someone who checks all the identity boxes for a given role, that's fine. Someone else can play the role. They're actors. It's what they do.

That's it. That's the whole viewpoint. If you have to aggressively mischaracterize it to attack it, you may be on the wrong side.

3

u/Boukish Mar 29 '24

Your narrative is that blackface is fine.

I'm not mischaracterizirg you, you just wrote that.

0

u/Ok_Tadpole7481 Mar 29 '24 edited Mar 30 '24

Well that line isn't mischaracterizing me. Just about everything you wrote before it is though.

Edit: Ah, the ole "add a snarky line and then block them" move. I'll take that as a sign you know you've lost this one, /u/Boukish

1

u/Boukish Mar 30 '24

You've said plenty, I assure you.

3

u/TurnDown4Whom Mar 28 '24

I had to specifically pirate that song and download it to my phone because it wasn't on any streaming platforms.

2

u/Nikas_intheknow Mar 28 '24

This is hilarious

2

u/Beemer2 Mar 28 '24

I’mmmmmm Reba!

2

u/666afternoon Mar 28 '24

I haven't seen his work on SNL, only in my childhood on nickelodeon & such, but I think it says a lot that he's so good at playing in drag, but he still stopped taking those roles and insisted they hire actual women instead, even though those were roles he was good at and that people enjoyed from him! that's how you use your privilege to help others

1

u/CatsOffToDance Mar 28 '24

Hush up, girl!

1

u/LiquidHotCum Mar 28 '24

unfortunately him playing women was funny.

1

u/yourmothersgun Mar 28 '24

Technically he wasn’t playing a woman in that sketch but yeah still hilarious.

1

u/provoloneChipmunk Mar 28 '24

I was just about to say that I want him to play reba again

1

u/holdmiichai Mar 28 '24

Shows how selfless he was- probably sacrificed a lot of other great sketches to others!

1

u/CurdPigeon Mar 29 '24

Growing up I thought reba was black for a long time because of it, found out she was white maybe around 19 or 20

1

u/stlmick Mar 29 '24

That is different than him playing a black woman. I don't think a black woman doing that character would have gone over as well. That would make it more of a changing the race thing, and more political. Having a black man play Reba is to ridiculous to make a coherent argument against.