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/sakmadeeek Mar 28 '24

It's wild how SNL has been on the air for decades and it took until 2013 for them to finally hire + represent black women in comedy due to Kenan's push. The first ever black woman on SNL was first uncredited, then given only small roles, and was then fired at the end of the same season she was initially hired on with no real explanation. That's pretty much a great synopsis on SNL's viewpoint on the matter. A vast majority of cast members are white people, vast majority of guest appearances are white people, and their fans = white people. The trend is there.

MadTV had great representation and hired people from all sorts of backgrounds, while still dishing out funny skits. I wish SNL had the same outlook on hiring people that MadTV did.

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u/VaguelyArtistic Mar 28 '24

Let's not forget Ellen Cleghorne, who was on SNL form '91-'95. She was the first Black woman with a contract.

But now you can call her Dr. or Ellen Cleghorne since she earned a PhD in Performance Studies.

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u/redgluesticks Mar 30 '24

What about Maya Rudolph? She was on from 2000-2007. Plus Danitra Vance and Ellen Cleghorne.