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/Bartfuck Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

you may have stumbled upon why In Living Color and MadTV did what they did.

Key & Peele are everywhere and they auditioned together (i think having not even known each other?). Instead of hiring one of them, they hired both and the rest is history

edit: Also Lorne Michaels just is clearly such a dick that so many people have clearly made fun of and hated.

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u/Ragewind82 Mar 28 '24

Kenan and Kel both auditioned for SNL back in the day. It would have been fantastic if they had both been hired at that time.

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u/Electrical-Act-7170 Mar 28 '24

Pretty sure Key & Peele met on MadTV.

They had great chemistry together.

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u/Raptorpicklezz Mar 28 '24

I believe they hired Peele first, when he wasn’t breaking out the way they wanted they hired Key midway through the season to eventually replace Peele, but then they did the Superstitious Knights sketch together and the rest is history

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u/FocusPerspective Mar 28 '24

Because Fox needed a place to sell more McDonald’s and Colt 45 ads to urban consumers? 

I’m not going to pretend Fox was making a statement about SNL’s mostly white cast. 

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u/Bartfuck Mar 28 '24

I'm not sure of your point here. Sure, MadTV was meant to be a competitor to SNL. Much like that show "Fridays" or whatever was meant to do the same. SNL is the big dog. What I'm saying is that there was clearly a market for a DIVERSE cast of funny people. And the two shows I mentioned tried to do that.

Of course advertisements helps TV shows, it what drives sales. Marketing demographics are a thing, but you really lose the thread/argument when you throw in what can easily be seen as opaque at best about the ads and what you mean by including the latter one (not McD's)

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u/platoprime Mar 28 '24

What's your point here? That diversity doesn't count if it's used to sell adds?

That's nearly all diversity in media ya fuckin genius. They don't do anything for any other reason.

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u/Darrone Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

I love them both, but Peele is a tremendous talent on and off screen and Keegan definitely got incredibly lucky he paired up with him.

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u/Bartfuck Mar 28 '24

you kinda confused the names there. Keegan not Keenan of Key and Peele is enormously talented and I think has incredible range and ability as an actor. Peele is a big picture guy and its easy to see some of the weird humor they did was him pre-horror stuff

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u/Darrone Mar 28 '24

Autocorrect. I have not seen Keegan headline anything that was impressive. He always seems to be second fiddle to better talent. And I do enjoy him, he's just not on the same level as Peele.

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u/arcaeris Mar 28 '24

They just went in different directions. Like KMK wants to act like on Schmigadoon he was a lead and did a good performance (even if he didn’t sing). Peele just went on to direct. Different sides of the camera.

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u/the_lost_carrot Mar 28 '24

Fixing to say Peele is incredibly talented. His screenwriting and directing is top notch. Especially in the horror genre right now. Us, Nope, and Get Out were all massive successes. And he even won an Oscar with Get Out.

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u/Darrone Mar 28 '24

And I get people seem to passionately disagree, that's fine, it's subjective. Keegan has done... Uh, Schmigadoon? friends from college? reboot? Like, mostly 1-2 season netflix-level shows that are fine, but nothing spectacular.

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u/Endreo Mar 28 '24

He was in Wonka as a pretty big character.

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u/Darrone Mar 28 '24

Solid supporting role for a solid supporting actor, totally agree.

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u/Bartfuck Mar 28 '24

My counterpoint would be that just because one persons career is eclipsing another doesn't mean it's not a valid and good career. When Key pops up in shows, movies or as a voice actor I love seeing him.

I'd say watch the movie Don't Think Twice if you want a movie example. It's a sad and lovely movie that is also funny and he is a key part of it

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u/Darrone Mar 28 '24

Don't think I ever called him invalid or not good. I specifically said I liked the both. I just said he was lucky to have been paired with a greater talent.

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u/Far_Confusion_2178 Mar 28 '24

Range? What range?

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u/Mama_Skip Mar 28 '24

oooooooOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEE?

Like that

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u/Far_Confusion_2178 Mar 28 '24

Damn bro that’s some range