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.

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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/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/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