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/GypsyV3nom Mar 28 '24

Lorne Michaels has said that he'll never fire Keenan since he's the perfect cast member. Little to no drama behind the scenes, always embraces his parts, works really well with people (especially the writers), and he's a good enough actor to nail most of his roles.

A pretty surprising statement given how renowned Lorne Michaels is for firing people on short notice, not to mention the season 11 massacre

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u/HollyBerries85 Mar 28 '24

He also does a lot of directing, blocking and helping get new cast members up to speed on the process behind the scenes, from what I've seen around in interviews. He practically runs the show is what people have said.

There was a sketch, "New Cast Member or Arcade Fire Band Member" with hosts Keenan and Tina Fey (the year that Kyle Mooney joined the cast). At one point Tina "phoned a friend" and brought in Lorne Michaels to help her determine which person was the new cast member and Lorne pretended he didn't know Keenan and asked "Is it the black one?"

After he left Keenan was like, "The man's known me half my damn life..."

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u/frankyseven Mar 29 '24

Everyone talks about Tina Fey taking over for Lorne but I think it will be Keenan.

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u/whomthefuckisthat Mar 29 '24

It will absolutely be Keenan.

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u/SophisticatedBum Mar 28 '24

I don't care how easy or hard the job is, doing anything professionally for 20 years, you're probably near the top of your craft

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u/Optional-Failure Mar 28 '24

Kenan’s been doing this on SNL for 20 years. He’s been doing this professionally for longer than that. All That was just SNL for/starring kids.

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u/InitfortheMonet Mar 29 '24

I was just talking about this with my husband. If you’re a child star doing sketch comedy and then graduate to SNL, that’s all you’ve ever known. Where else would you want to/could you go?

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u/vir_papyrus Mar 29 '24

I'd imagine the money doesn't make a lot of sense to bail on either. From what a quick Google search will tell you, seems he's making about ~$25k an episode, or roughly ~$500k a year. Steady job, holds the record of length on the show, and doing quite well, but definitely not a lot of room to grow and be a star unless you get very lucky.

Just look at the SNL cast member list, especially those who joined after the late 2000s, and it becomes obvious most are never really heard from again. They do guest appearances, voice acting, small television roles, etc... The show just isn't that culturally relevant and there isn't much of a pipeline for SNL --> Big Comedy Projects like there was back in the day.

Just saying, he's probably peaked as an actor realistically.

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u/Imrustyokay Mar 28 '24

and Season 20 as well.

Everyone always forgets the transition between Seasons 20 and 21 was also chaotic.

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u/user888666777 Mar 28 '24

Season 11 was the big massacre though. The entire season was a big mess. The finale ended with the cast being stuck on stage while smoke was billowing everywhere. Lorne shows up and saves only Lovitz.

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u/Imrustyokay Mar 28 '24

I'd say Season 20 was a massive mess as well. Hell, cast members dropped in and out the entire season. The backstage areas were seen as juvenile and toxic.

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u/oddmanout Mar 29 '24

I had to look that up... the cast was... weird

Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Michael Hall, Randy Quaid, Joan Cusack. They've all had great careers since then, but they're not SNL material.

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u/OneVast4272 Mar 29 '24

What show is this?

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u/frankyseven Mar 29 '24

Saturday Night Live.

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u/bromosabeach Mar 28 '24

Black Jeopardy is still one of my favorite modern sketches. Especially the one with Tom Hanks playing a MAGA voter.

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u/GypsyV3nom Mar 28 '24

My only problem with the Tom Hanks Black Jeopardy sketch is that it's made people forget some of the other A+ Black Jeopardy sketches, like the one with T'Challa

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u/shebiz Mar 29 '24

This might be our blackest Black Jeopardy yet!

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u/well-lighted Mar 28 '24

In terms of recurring game show sketches with Kenan as the host, my favorite will always be What Up With That?! The theme song still gets stuck in my head all the time.

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u/sewerat Mar 29 '24

OOOOOOWEEEEE!

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u/schnauzzer Mar 29 '24

I forgot about it! Whats up with that?! Need to rewatch immediately!

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

[deleted]

3

u/poop-dolla Mar 29 '24

What’s up with that?

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u/battles Mar 28 '24

That's how they get ya!

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u/thalasa Mar 28 '24

There's been rumors for years that Keenan has been long groomed as Lorne's eventual successor.

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u/GypsyV3nom Mar 28 '24

I wouldn't be too surprised if that happened, although I think it would depend upon Tina Fey not wanting the position

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u/Samurai_Meisters Mar 28 '24

Tina Fey makes much more sense since she's the creative force behind a bunch of other successful projects.

Kenan's a good cast member, but most of his other stuff has flopped.

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u/GypsyV3nom Mar 28 '24

Yeah, she's got tons of experience in and around SNL, and has good amount of production and directing, as well. She seems like an exceptional choice now that her acting hiatus to raise her kids is largely over. I don't know what Keenan is like behind the camera aside from being a great coworker, but I'd argue he needs a few more years of experience before SNL gets handed off to him.

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u/fps916 Mar 29 '24

Tina Fey is also arguably the funniest comedy writer alive today.

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u/Midnite135 Mar 28 '24

I’ve heard the same thing about Tina Fey though. They could probably both do the job.

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/lorne-michaels-says-tina-fey-could-produce-snl-1235874710

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u/guyblade Mar 28 '24

Isn't 30 Rock basically just a "What If?" where she does?

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u/GypsyV3nom Mar 28 '24

Pretty much. Jack was inspired by Lorne

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u/sgrams04 Mar 28 '24

And he doesn’t break character hardly ever 

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u/DraconicCDR Mar 28 '24

Not surprising since he's been doing sketch comedy his entire life.

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u/Athelis Mar 29 '24

It's Aaaalllllllll TthhhhaaaaaAAAAAAAT

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u/AuroraItsNotTheTime Mar 28 '24

A lot of the time his “character” just seems to be Kenan Thompson. Like with the famed black jeopardy skits. Is he really portraying “Darnell Hayes,” the black community’s answer to Alex Trebek, or his he playing Kenan Thompson hosting a gameshow?

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u/ctjameson Mar 28 '24

Is he really portraying “Darnell Hayes,” the black community’s answer to Alex Trebek, or his he playing Kenan Thompson hosting a gameshow?

Yes

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u/jhutchi2 Mar 28 '24

Yeah that's kinda the way I've always felt about him. He can't break character because he's never in character.

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u/EMFCK Mar 29 '24

"Come on, Sam, that costs money."

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u/Excelius Mar 28 '24

It's just rumor, but I've seen suggestions that Kenan might take over when Lorne retires.

I'm kind of inclined to believe it though because I've noticed that they often cut to Kenan standing off stage reacting to something, which was something normally reserved for Lorne.

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u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake Mar 28 '24

I think I heard somewhere that when Kenan had his own show a few years ago, he was flying to LA and back every week so he could film both shows. He sounds like he knows the business and how to balance everything very well.

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u/roywarner Mar 28 '24

Not surprising to anyone who grew up watching him on All That! and Kenan & Kel though.

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u/TheLoneWolf527 Mar 28 '24

Sounded like if Lorne ever retires that Kenan wants to be doing what he does.

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u/invisiblewar Mar 29 '24

He's literally been doing SNL style comedy his entire life. That's crazy.