SNL’s Kenan Thompson Says, No More Drag!

Comedian, Kenan Thompson

In a new interview with TV Guide “Saturday Night Live” cast member Kenan Thompson vowed that he will no longer play female characters on the long-running sketch show. Thompson, who has played the likes of Michele Obama, Whoopi Goldberg, Star Jones, and Bobbi Kristina Brown during his eight year stint on Saturday Night Live, says he’s done with doing the drag routines.
The show has not had a black female cast member since 2007, when it hired comedian Maya Rudolph, and has hired only four other black women in 40 years out of about 100 cast members who’ve appeared on the show.
Thompson’s announcement came on the heels of fellow black cast member Jay Pharoah saying during an interview with MSNBC’s theGrio that SNL producers “need to pay attention” to diversity.
However, both Thompson and Pharoah offered up some pretty ‘safe’ excuses in an attempt to explain the lack of black female members on the show. Thompson says there just aren’t that many out there ready for primetime:

“It’s just a tough part of the business. Like in auditions, they just never find ones that are ready.”

Pharoah says that landing a position on the cast is all about timing:

“Some people choke up”…”Some people burn their bridges by saying things they shouldn’t say either. You just have to be very political about your delivery, what you say, and your performance.”

Mmmmhmmmm…are we talking about the same racy, often politically incorrect, consistently crossing the lines of good taste, “Live from New York it’s Saturday Night Live!” Saturday Night Live?

Well – If SNL’s producers are at all serious about filling that void Thompson has created, all they’d have to do is checkout YouTube for a wide array of black women comedians who would kill to get a stint on the show.
Some real funny examples;