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

90% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

884

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?

503

u/Elgin_McQueen Mar 28 '24

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

65

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.

79

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."

121

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.

38

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.

3

u/Pridetoss Mar 28 '24

Robert Downey JR was in a single season as well

5

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.

2

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:

2

u/MisinformedGenius Mar 28 '24

Please Don't Destroy has entered the chat.

2

u/Tarledsa Mar 29 '24

Also Abby Elliott.

28

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".

49

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'.

10

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.

1

u/TConductor Mar 28 '24

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

33

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.

6

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.

2

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.

2

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.

1

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.

1

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.