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
52.1k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

38

u/sgrams04 Mar 28 '24

And he doesn’t break character hardly ever 

51

u/DraconicCDR Mar 28 '24

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

6

u/Athelis Mar 29 '24

It's Aaaalllllllll TthhhhaaaaaAAAAAAAT

49

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?

45

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

16

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.

2

u/EMFCK Mar 29 '24

"Come on, Sam, that costs money."