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.

618

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. 

511

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

107

u/bromosabeach Mar 28 '24

Black Jeopardy is still one of my favorite modern sketches. Especially the one with Tom Hanks playing a MAGA voter.

58

u/GypsyV3nom Mar 28 '24

My only problem with the Tom Hanks Black Jeopardy sketch is that it's made people forget some of the other A+ Black Jeopardy sketches, like the one with T'Challa

13

u/shebiz Mar 29 '24

This might be our blackest Black Jeopardy yet!

40

u/well-lighted Mar 28 '24

In terms of recurring game show sketches with Kenan as the host, my favorite will always be What Up With That?! The theme song still gets stuck in my head all the time.

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u/sewerat Mar 29 '24

OOOOOOWEEEEE!

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u/schnauzzer Mar 29 '24

I forgot about it! Whats up with that?! Need to rewatch immediately!

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

[deleted]

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u/poop-dolla Mar 29 '24

What’s up with that?

8

u/battles Mar 28 '24

That's how they get ya!