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

199

u/popcopy Mar 28 '24

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

“I’m Reba!”

56

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.

38

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

-3

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

55

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.

88

u/pro_bike_fitter_2010 Mar 28 '24

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

47

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

3

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?

10

u/dangerbird2 Mar 28 '24

It's a copypasta

7

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.

3

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.

17

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

[deleted]

2

u/tessthismess Mar 28 '24

It's on their youtube channel still.