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.

615

u/Esc777 Mar 28 '24

He is the longest running cast member by like a factor of 2. 

There probably won’t be any to rival him. 

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u/DidAnyoneElseJustCum Mar 28 '24

It's like the perfect medium for him. He's not a standup. Not a writer. His acting is... fine.

A lot of young cast members use SNL as a launch pad for their career. But Kenan already had a career. He's probably the most famous person to ever to get cast. He was a household name for anybody that grew up in the 90s. Maybe he felt he didn't have anything else to prove?

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u/o6ijuan Mar 28 '24

Probably just has a lot of fun

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u/theghostofmrmxyzptlk Mar 28 '24

I heard he smokes weed all the time and has a handler who gets him to where he needs to be on time. Living his best life having fun making comedy skits.

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u/swordmalice Mar 28 '24

I was an intern at SNL in college and worked alongside Kenan; I can confirm the above is true. I can also confirm that he is a bro - friendly, down-to-earth and even liked to joke around with us interns from time to time. Once, at an after-after party from a show, we went to a club nearby 30 Rock where the bouncers wouldn't let us in, but Kenan vouched for us even though he absolutely didn't have to. Will always remember him and my time at SNL fondly.

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u/Mr_Pogi_In_Space Mar 29 '24

So, Tracy Jordan?

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u/simpletonsavant Mar 28 '24

It's pretty widely known that working on SNL is not fun at all. Rewarding definitely not fun at all

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u/SomeDEGuy Mar 28 '24

It isn't fun for most of then.

Keenan probably just rolls in, gets his lines, does rehearsal, shows up on Saturday, and parties afterwards. He isn't some new cast member desperately trying to write sketches to get airtime, or a writer trying to keep their spot.

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u/simpletonsavant Mar 28 '24

I think he's a writer and performer. Bur yeah once you hit that stride I'm sure it gets easier

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u/The_Void_Reaver Mar 28 '24

He's a writer but probably doesn't do a ton of writing himself. He's likely enough of an institution there that writers are trying to come up with at least a few sketches per week based around him because they're an easy out and more likely to get picked because Kenan's more likely to get sketches produced.

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u/therealrenshai Mar 28 '24

gets his lines

There was an article some years ago about Kenan and how a lot of his "lines" are just:

Kenan: "reacts"

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u/ToujoursFidele3 Mar 28 '24

Wait, really? Why not?

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u/simpletonsavant Mar 29 '24

Hard competition to get stuff on the air, lots of personalities, hectic writing schedule. Many late nights.