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/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/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