Saturday Night Live is an institution and every comedians dream job. Its known that if you get on SNL then your career is beginning to take off. Comedians like Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, Dana Carvey, Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, John Forte, Will Forte, Janeane Garofalo, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Molly Shannon, Andy Samberg, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Jason Sudeikis, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader and others are proof of its enormous reach! Some of these comedians have gone on to make blockbuster films, highly rated television shows and became A-List stars.
But there is a BIG elephant in the room with Saturday night live. For as long I can remember its been a predominantly caucasian male show for quite some time. There were always females on the show about 2 or 3 and 1 or 2 people African Americans, but the casts were mostly made up of caucasian males 98% of the time. Case in point: The original SNL cast with big names like Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase, there was one african american in the cast and that was Garrett Morris. There was a bit more in the diversity department having 3 women in the cast but in regards to race there was just one stand out anomaly. Don't get me wrong Saturday Night Live is a funny show and I remember watching the show as a child and seeing the dynamic of the comedy and comedians change over the years. I still like the show whether its an all white cast or all male cast. No doubt its a hilarious show. But I think they are sleeping on the expansion of the show if they were to diversify their cast.
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| One of my favorite casts of SNL and this wasn't a well diverse cast in terms of ethnicity |
According to HelloBeautiful, Saturday Night Live is getting some flack for its new cast of predominantly white male caucasians. Cast member Kenan Thompson says that he agrees with the casting claiming that African American female comedians "Just Aren't Ready". Well he may have a point but his fellow cast mate Jay Pharoah disagrees. Jay Pharoah claims that there is plenty of untapped talent waiting to be displayed on SNL. He was interviewed by theGrio and he says that he knows plenty of women who are VERY much ready to be on SNL. One woman he said should be considered is Darmirra Brunson, who’s currently on Tyler Perry’s “Love They Neighbor.”
Currently there are 3 actors on SNL that are minorities Jay Pharoah, Kenan Thompson, and Nasim Pedrad.
As I said before I just feel like having that diversity can make room for a bigger and even grander show. SNL is one of, if not the BIGGEST late night shows ever. And its a sketch/variety genre has transcended other shows i.e. Mad TV, In Living Color etc. All I'm saying is that these shows had diverse casts. In Living Color was a predominantly African American cast with hispanic and caucasian cast members sprinkled in. But they had a diverse cast as far as the ratio of men to women. As far as Mad TV they had a well diverse cast in both gender and race.
I think that saying that black female comedians aren't ready is probably the most unintelligent thing I have ever hear Kenan Thompson say. Just be real. What you really want to say is that there is a certain image they are trying to display and the women who audition for Saturday Night Live don't fit the bill.
Let's just read Kenan Thompson right quick, in regards to his career....Ready..Set..Go (my homage to Aries Spears and Debra Wilson LOL): First off when you were on All That you were semi funny and at best you had a few corny jokes that went over. Second on the Kenan and Kel Show it was Kel that carried you throughout the show. He was the funnier of the duo and to be honest I think he would do well on SNL or any other variety/sketch show on the TV. #andimthrough!
Source: HelloBeautiful and theGrio
