*Kenan Thompson has come a long way since his time as Dexter Reed on Nickelodeon’s “Good Burger.” While that series yielded a youthful following and a duo of movies based on the “All That” comedy sketch, it’s life after “Good Burger that yielded a successful career,” most notably with “Saturday Night Live.”
Thompson’s time on the long-running sketch comedy series has yielded his share of ups and downs since joining its cast in 2003. With the show’s 50th season looming, the entertainer joined fellow ‘SNL-er’ Bowen Yang for a trip down memory lane with Variety, while weighing in on controversial hosts, the show’s impact, and being a comedic actor in a heavily scrutinized real world.
Although Thompson reigns as “SNL”’s longest-running cast member, the accomplishment seemingly falls on deaf ears with his own people. Unfortunately for the funnyman, the show featured comedy legends Garrett Morris, Yvonne Hudson, Eddie Murphy, Leslie Jones, Damon Wayons, Danitra Vance, Tim Meadows, Maya Rudolph, Chris Rock, Ellen Cleghorne, Finesse Mitchell, Sasheer Zamata, Chris Redd, Tracy Morgan and Jay Pharoah is not must-see TV for some African Americans.
It feels great, Thompson told Variety, “until I get into a group of Black people and they’re like, ‘We don’t watch ‘SNL.’ I’m like, ‘You know I’m representing for you all!’”
“This is what I run into too, with queer people and with Asian people. ‘Oh, we don’t watch,’” added Yang, who generates the same reaction.
Although the comedians don’t feel pressured to represent their communities, Thompson did feel the sting of criticism in 2023 when he portrayed “Funky Kong,” a Mario-inspired character. The character was a hit with everyone at “SNL” but met the opposite reaction from the Black community. As a result, all eyes and questions were directed towards him.
“Then you get into the world, and the world sees a Black man in a monkey costume, and it starts to go to that conversation — which is the furthest thing from all of our minds,” he voiced. “It’s not that we shun it like it’s not a real thing. At some point, there was probably a moment where our people were looked at like that, or whatever. I don’t deny those things, because I’m aware of it. I look at ‘Planet of the Apes’ sideways, so I get it. But when do we advance? When do we leave that in the past and just allow ourselves to just have free-thinking ideas?”
“I feel like if Kenan is talking about advancing something out of one very rigid stereotype, or one rigid portrayal, then isn’t ‘SNL’ the perfect place to be the front line for that?,” expressed Yang, who feels ““SNL” is the right place to approach such viewpoints to move past damaging viewpoints. Doesn’t that character kind of transcend a lot of those things if it works through it, around it, and doesn’t dwell on anything ethnic? A sketch show should be the perfect arena for that.”
For more of Variety’s interview with Thompson and Yang, click here.
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