Author: Ella Fornari
Saturday Night Live (SNL) cast member Kenan Thompson announced that he will not cross-dress on the show until SNL hires a black female cast member. What a drag.
“[Finding black female comics is] just a tough part of the business. Like in auditions, they just never find ones that are ready,” Thompson said to TVGuide.
By claiming that the root of SNL’s casting problem is a lack of worthy black female talent, Thompson and SNL’s producers are actively degrading black female comics. The problem is not a lack of black female talent; the problem is SNL’s lack of a commitment to diversity.
The only other current black cast member on SNL, Jay Pharoah, has made recommendations to producers, voicing that he too is tired of cross-dressing for the show to feature any black female characters.
“The show should hire Darmirra Brunson of Tyler Perry’s ‘Love Thy Neighbor,’ Pharoah said, clarifying, “Why hire her? Because she’s black, first of all.”
Pharoah has stated that SNL’s diversity problem isn’t due to a lack of ready talent, but instead is a result of producers and casting agents not prioritizing hiring a black female comic. Regardless of gender, when there are only one or two black comedians, their place on the show is largely limited to “token” roles. Having a homogenous cast further normalizes the phenomenon of the “token” black character in comedy.
Because SNL’s producers presumably couldn’t find any “ready” black cast members, they hired six new white cast members this season, only one of which is a woman.
In SNL’s 38 seasons there have only been three black female cast members (compared to 11 black men). The last black woman on SNL was Maya Rudolph, who left the show in 2007. Ever since Rudolph’s departure, it is not uncommon for Thomspon to play multiple black women per episode.
By having a homogenous cast, SNL establishes that in its world the American perspective is a white perspective. Not only is this disturbingly inaccurate, but it is also incredibly hypocritical in light of SNL’s otherwise liberal attitude.
SNL is known to hire cast members fairly exclusively from three comedy troupes: the Upright Citizens Brigade (co-founded by SNL alum Amy Poehler), Second City and Groundlings. Although the groups have made attempts to diversify (the Upright Citizens Brigade, for example, offers diversity scholarships for their otherwise expensive sketch and improv classes), all three of these troupes have been known to attract primarily white comedians. Although these comedy groups have trained and yielded the most successful of SNL alums, if SNL is truly committed to making diversity a priority, it will expand its search past these theaters.
SNL is based in topical comedy, so when there are no black females on the show, current events that revolve around black women are either not covered at all or these roles are filled by male comics like Thompson. There is a long history of black comedians being told to wear dresses as a spectacle of emasculation. Comedian Dave Chappelle famously boycotted dressing in drag for his show after he felt his audience no longer understood that his dressing in drag was intended as satire on the comedic history of black men in drag. By not having black female cast members, SNL is accepting and further conventionalizing, rather than questioning, the comedic trope of the black male in drag.
Soon after Thompson announced his boycott, SNL announced it would have Kerry Washington of NBC’s “Scandal” to host its Nov. 2nd show. Having Washington host was a strategic move from SNL’s producers to bring a black female, albeit temporarily, to the show.
Washington’s cold opening is arguably the most poignant sketch so far this season. The sketch opens with President Obama, played by Pharoah, welcoming his wife Michelle (Kerry Washington) into the Oval Office. “Michelle, this is such a treat. I feel like it’s been years since I’ve seen you,” Pharoah’s Obama says. This line is explicitly written and delivered with a winking quality, alluding to the fact that prior to Washington’s host appearance, SNL has not had a black female actress to play Michelle Obama. It quickly becomes apparent that this sketch isn’t about the Obama’s or national politics; it is about SNL’s diversity problem.
The show actively acknowledging that it has a diversity problem, although a step forward, is not enough. By making itself the joke, SNL is attempting to deflect the criticism it has received concerning its lack of diversity. If SNL wants to be culturally relevant and engage its American audience, it must address its delusional claim of an insufficient talent pool and actively diversify, not just comment on the fact that it has a diversity problem.
Ella Fornari is a sophomore Media Arts and Culture and biology double major. She can be reached at fornari@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyEFornari.
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