CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Was This Week’s Controversial Cold Open a Sign of Progress — Or a Slap in the Face — For Black Women on ‘SNL’?

Flavorwire: A few weeks ago, Kenan Thompson was interviewed about the Saturday Night Live cast’s lack of diversity, particularly when it comes to women of color. His response — that the show has brought in black female performers to audition, but that none of them seemed “ready” for the ensemble cast — sparked controversy, with many people rushing to claim that Thompson insinuated that there were no funny black women.

2 comments:

ZoeW said...

I think this is great. SNL is making fun of themselves and is addressing the problem while still keeping it light. I like that it also shows that SNL knows that it needs to step up it's game and get some more black accesses on TV. While other shows might not address this issue or even worse try to address it and screw everything up SNL is exposing it in the way they know best. Also I think that since all the actors signed on to do the skit that they were all okay making this statement in this way.

Also Al Sharpton at the end is great.

Sabria Trotter said...

I think SNL has a long way to go but this a good start in their effort to address this huge problem in their casting. I do agree that it was a waste that this problem was never addressed again, when they had this great opportunity with Kerry Washington being there, but I am happy that they addressed it so directly, even in such a short period of time. I think this author is correct in questioning how effectively SNL can address this problem on set when most of its writing staff is white and male. Perhaps that is where the changes need to be made first.