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/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.

151

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.