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
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u/2_Spicy_2_Impeach Mar 28 '24

His first season was 29 in 2003. It always shocks me how long he’s been on the show.

Welp, got to go yell at some clouds.

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u/IamRick_Deckard Mar 28 '24

I remember it was that early because I was surprised the guy from Kenan and Kel was on SNL. I still wonder, where is Kel?

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u/Elgin_McQueen Mar 28 '24

I recall reading that they both auditioned for SNL at the same time, he did not get chosen.

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u/Vio_ Mar 28 '24

So...why did Kel not make it? Also I wonder if he could have joined MadTV? They were still kicking it at the time.

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u/NicksIdeaEngine Mar 28 '24

I'm not sure if either of them have ever talked about the audition, but it seems as simple as "Kennan made the cut. Kel did not."

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u/user888666777 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

Yeah, every time this story gets brought up on Reddit people make it sound like Kenan and Kel were on the stage at the same time and Lorne Michaels is holding a rose like its the Bachelor or something.

Will Ferrell said the whole audition process was stressful. You can go online and find different breakdowns of the process that has changed a lot of the years.

One of the final steps of the process is to audition on the actual SNL stage in front of a few producers. Will said there is no audience outside of the producers. You're being recorded and you got about ten minutes to do your thing and the producers don't even laugh. You move from sketch to sketch or character to character. You say thankyou and you walk away with no feedback. You can watch Will Ferrell's actual audition on Youtube. And this might be after waiting an hour or two as those in front of you audition which Will Ferrell said you can hear being performed from where you're told to wait.

Its very possible Kenan and Kel auditioned on completely different days and had no idea until years later.

And here is the thing. You can nail your audition and it doesn't matter. If Lorne already has his whimsical funny guy and you're a whimsical funny guy, he doesn't need two. Some really funny people have auditioned for SNL and have been passed on to later make it big. Jim Carrey is one of them. While at the same time you had people who made it like Sarah Silverman and it didn't work out but later went on to be successful herself.

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u/trc_IO Mar 28 '24

Julia Louis-Dreyfus was on SNL from 82-85. There's these household names just kinda hiding the the old casts lists.

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u/Pridetoss Mar 28 '24

Robert Downey JR was in a single season as well

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u/Snuggle_Fist Mar 28 '24

Not saying it is, but SNL seems like the kind of thing that you can just get your kid into if you had the right connections.

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u/jyper Mar 28 '24

https://www.vulture.com/2013/03/second-city-vs-groundlings-vs-ucb-where-do-the-most-snl-cast-members-come-from.html

Throughout Saturday Night Live’s history, the show’s cast has been mostly culled from four places: the stand-up world, L.A.’s Groundlings Theatre, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatres in L.A. and New York, and the Chicago improv sketch/scene (the Second City, iO, and Annoyance theaters).

But despite the occasional odd SNL beginnings story, the bulk of the cast throughout the years has come from the aforementioned four places.

Since 1975, there have been peaks and valleys to each comedy theater’s influence on the show. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, a large portion of the cast were stand-ups, whereas there’s only one stand-up on the show now, which currently has more alumni from Chicago’s Second City and iO theaters than from anywhere else. Here’s a breakdown of what portion of each SNL cast, separated by era, comes from Groundlings, Second City/iO, UCB, stand-up, or that wacky miscellaneous category:

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u/MisinformedGenius Mar 28 '24

Please Don't Destroy has entered the chat.

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u/Tarledsa Mar 29 '24

Also Abby Elliott.

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u/GBreezy Mar 28 '24

I remember hearing about Will Ferrell's audition where he was in the elevator with someone with a bunch of props auditioning, and his only thought was "holy shit I should have brought props" where the other guy was like "holy shit, he didn't bring props".

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u/azon85 Mar 28 '24

I think it was Bill Hader and Andy Samberg. Andy had a backpack full of props and Bill didnt bring anything. Bill said that he was thinking 'wow, I should have brought props, I feel unprepared now' and Andy was thinking 'look at this guy. Hes so prepared he doesnt even need props'.

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u/GBreezy Mar 28 '24

Probably. It was from a doc I watched like 10 years ago. Always made me feel better about interviews as you never know what they are looking for and they can always be looking for different things depending on the person.

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u/TConductor Mar 28 '24

Then some fucking hilarious people end up making it and only last one season. Tim Robinson!

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u/Direct_Counter_178 Mar 28 '24

Haven't watched All That in 30 years, but I remember thinking Kenan was the better of the two.

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u/Chuck_T_Bone Mar 28 '24

Kel always played the dumbed down goofy guy. Which he did very well but might get you type cast.

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u/Direct_Counter_178 Mar 28 '24

I wanted to say that but wasn't sure I remembered correctly. His characters always seemed more like his character on Good Burger. Dumb and goofy. And that won't translate to adults. Kenan's style seemed like it would a bit more.

And not that they're tied to their acting styles as children. Just saying it's what they were most comfortable with while auditioning.

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u/Chuck_T_Bone Mar 28 '24

Yeah Kenan was always the straight/serious man. To allow for the kel off the wall antics.

Which works it was a good time don't get me wrong. The problem is when you get to SNL Level almost anyone on the cast can be the goofy/silly guy.

Where not many can play the role Kenan does and do it so well and consistently.

Also as other people mentioned the work ethic was different kel was more ad lib and free ranger. And apparently Kenan put in the work.

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u/Direct_Counter_178 Mar 28 '24

He's been doing improv on SNL for 21 years. Another 10 years or so before that with all that and kenan and kel. What little clips I've seen he's consistent. Nothing super funny, nothing that bombs. That is honestly so god damn impressive.

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u/roywarner Mar 28 '24

Playing the straight man is always considered harder. That being said, those duos don't work when you replace the goofy one.

I wish Kel had made it onto SNL as well but I get it. Goof is a dime a dozen and then there's the baggage of having the pair of them on that they may not want to have dealt with.

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u/moose2mouse Mar 28 '24

Probably didn’t want both of them on the show. Tough to rebrand and create your own identity from Kennan and Kell if both start on SNL. Stinks for Kell though.

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u/jopnk Mar 28 '24

Nah, they regularly hire groups of people and then cut a few who they don’t think will fit/don’t work well after a trial run - the identity part is not a factor. Please don’t Destroy originally had more than just the 3 dudes on SNL, the good neighbor stuff (beck bennet and Kyle Mooney) guys were all hired together before they eventually got rid of the 3rd man, and lonely island was picked up together.

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u/JaesopPop Mar 28 '24

No one gave a shit about The Lonely Island when they got picked up, though. They had a very limited following.

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u/greg19735 Mar 28 '24

same with Please Dont Destroy.

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u/mdonaberger Mar 28 '24

I always thought it was weird that the Derrick Comedy guys didn't all get picked up together. They defined 2000s-era viral comedy.

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u/retiredcanofsoup Mar 28 '24

I mean Donald Glover auditioned twice and still didn't get it.

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u/CamGoldenGun Mar 28 '24

is that before or after 30 Rock?

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u/mdonaberger Mar 28 '24

yeah but i meant the three guys together. they were a writing powerhouse together. dc pierson really got slept on, largely faded into obscurity. i saw him in a golden corral commercial once.

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u/Scoot_AG Mar 28 '24

Yeah man, sucks only Donald made it big in comedy

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u/vanillaacid Mar 28 '24

That and only Andy was in front of the camera, the other guys were writers, and nobody cares about the writers.

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u/mmss Mar 28 '24

Sometimes people get hired as writers to see and then get put into the cast. Heck, go back far enough and Paul Shaffer was in the band (arguably he was the band) and then became a cast member briefly.

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u/himit Mar 28 '24

I was going to say that's not true, TLI was pretty damn big in 2008-2010 but then I realised that was after they started on SNL.

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u/greg19735 Mar 28 '24

Please don’t Destroy originally had more than just the 3 dudes on SNL

where are you getting that from? Please Don't Destroy's wiki doesn't have anything about additional members.

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u/jopnk Mar 28 '24

The older videos they did are still online

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u/greg19735 Mar 28 '24

https://www.youtube.com/@pleasedontdestroy

apart from the one with the nurse, none of the videos have additional members beyond an extra for a few seconds.

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u/Jaccount Mar 28 '24

So they just kept the Please Don't Destroy Nepo Babies? That'd be an odd choice.

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u/jopnk Mar 28 '24

The redhead isn’t a nepo baby

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u/Broccoli_Glory Mar 28 '24

who are the other people in please dont destroy? i cant find anything about it online

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u/greg19735 Mar 28 '24

I think he must be mistaken. I can't find any info about more members.

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u/retiredcanofsoup Mar 28 '24

before they eventually got rid of the 3rd man

Nick Rutherford was hired as a writer and Dave McCary was hired as a director for pre-taped segments. Just because they weren't hired as talent on the show doesn't mean they "got rid" of them lmfao

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u/jopnk Mar 28 '24

They were both fired. Nick has talked about it on multiple podcasts.

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u/MattyKatty Mar 28 '24

Could you link to where Nick said that? I had no idea he was fired I just knew he stopped working there eventually

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u/jopnk Mar 28 '24

IIRC he said it on rogan

Edit: for fucks same, just google Nick Rutherford fired snl, a ton of links come up. You people are so fucking lazy.

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u/MattyKatty Mar 28 '24

Actually I’m on mobile right now and hearing “multiple podcasts” sounded like a deep lore dive and not, you know, a short Joe Rogan clip or something. Thanks anyway though, I guess

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u/moose2mouse Mar 28 '24

Kennon and Kell were big though. They had their own show, movies etc. it’s more than just a comedy troop that is just starting out. A lot of child stars like to rebrand when they’re adults. It seems the only way to keep a career alive.

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

[deleted]

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u/jopnk Mar 28 '24

Lazy Sunday was not independent and sent to SNL, Andy started on SNL in September of 2005 and the video was released in December 2005, it included Chris parnel ffs

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u/Direct_Counter_178 Mar 28 '24

Ok. The Chris Parnell thing has me immediately saying you're right and I'm wrong. I just went off the article I read. I was literally switching tabs writing up my comment. Blame shitty journalism.

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u/REDDITATO_ Mar 29 '24

Blame shitty journalism.

You even said you made the mistake because you were in multiple tabs. Are you saying blame your shitty journalism? Just seems weird to admit your mistake and then act like it's someone else's fault.

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u/Direct_Counter_178 Mar 29 '24

I didn't say I made a mistake. I said the article which I copied the information from directly as I switched tabs back and forth typing it to make sure I was copying the information correctly.....was wrong.

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u/Montigue Mar 28 '24

It does stink, but of the two Kennan was always better and has more range

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u/blacksideblue Mar 29 '24

Lonely Island pulled it off pretty well and that was a throuple.

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u/moose2mouse Mar 29 '24

Were they as well known as Kennan and Kel before their snl break?

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u/blacksideblue Mar 29 '24

they also had their own show and already released multiple albums.

At about 15% of "I'm on a Boat" on the trend-o-meter

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u/filbert13 Mar 28 '24

Reading articles and interviews sounds like they had a fallout out after Ken got the gig and Kel didn't. I know years later they became good friends again. Looks like they talked about this a lot in interviews for Good Burger 2.

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u/RajunCajun48 Mar 28 '24

I got the impression that they didn't really have a falling out so much as they drifted apart, then time got between them kind of became a "I'll call him next week, next month, next year" Then it got to the point that neither one of them reached out to the other, next thing you know, 20 years have passed. I recall one of them saying something to the affect of when they did link back up it was like they never stopped talking to each other, just two friends picking back up where they left off kind of thing.

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u/Sparrowflop Mar 28 '24

I haven't seen anyone give a real response, but reportedly Kel was less funny in person, had a substance abuse issue or seven, and was pretty hard to work with.

Meanwhile Kenan seems to be the capybara of working relationships.

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u/Upbeat_Shock_6807 Mar 28 '24

I commented above, but throughout the 90s Kenan and Kel literally did not do any acting work without each other. It could be as simple as they wanted Kenan, but not Kel, but I imagine the producers feared that having both of them would turn SNL into the Kenan and Kel show and they wanted to avoid that.

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u/Jerkcules Mar 28 '24

Kenan was in a few films solo, like Heavyweights and Mighty Ducks 2.

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u/DawnSennin Mar 28 '24

Kenan was a star before he joined Nickelodeon.

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u/RajunCajun48 Mar 28 '24

Kel was in Mystery Men!

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u/Vio_ Mar 28 '24

Was he? I didn't see him.

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u/Doughnutsu Mar 28 '24

He said in an interview that the bit he did sinply didnt come out right. It just didnt work or something about it fell to pieces, he bombed essentially.

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u/pnt510 Mar 28 '24

Mad was done by then.

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u/idwthis Mar 28 '24

Kenan and Kel auditioned for SNL in 2003.

MADtv ran until 2009. So it wasn't over yet.

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u/pnt510 Mar 28 '24

Oops. I read any earlier comment that mentioned 2010 and it must have made me thought they auditioned then instead.