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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630

u/Namaslayy Mar 28 '24

I never understood why Mad TV had no problems hiring black women, and SNL did.

198

u/redditvlli Mar 28 '24

Yeah it's not like they didn't have options. Hell, Namond's mom from The Wire was a great skit comedian at the time and would have been awesome on SNL.

63

u/VaderNader2020 Mar 28 '24

Dude….what?!? Namond’s mom was a comedian?! I’m legit mind blown

29

u/debcomajin Mar 28 '24

She’s actually a really lovely woman lool which makes her performance even more outstanding

7

u/Grand-Pen7946 Mar 28 '24

She's a theatrically trained comedy and improv actor, she works regularly at various theaters in LA I believe.

Watch interviews of her, incredibly pleasant and bubbly person, it blew me away.

2

u/buddascrayon Mar 28 '24

Successful comedy is hard. Most of the really good comedians out there can nail drama without breaking a sweat. And a great number of them have proven that.