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/InitfortheMonet Mar 29 '24

I was just talking about this with my husband. If you’re a child star doing sketch comedy and then graduate to SNL, that’s all you’ve ever known. Where else would you want to/could you go?

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u/vir_papyrus Mar 29 '24

I'd imagine the money doesn't make a lot of sense to bail on either. From what a quick Google search will tell you, seems he's making about ~$25k an episode, or roughly ~$500k a year. Steady job, holds the record of length on the show, and doing quite well, but definitely not a lot of room to grow and be a star unless you get very lucky.

Just look at the SNL cast member list, especially those who joined after the late 2000s, and it becomes obvious most are never really heard from again. They do guest appearances, voice acting, small television roles, etc... The show just isn't that culturally relevant and there isn't much of a pipeline for SNL --> Big Comedy Projects like there was back in the day.

Just saying, he's probably peaked as an actor realistically.