Who Will Play Obama on SNL? Not "Chubby" Kenan Thompson
Poor Kenan Thompson... as the ONLY black member of the current Saturday Night Live cast, he would have been the obvious choice to play Barack Obama in any sketches involving the presidential candidate - a job that could have possibly become quite lucrative for him, if Obama does become the next president of the United States. We're talking at least 4 years of guaranteed employment! However, Mr Thompson clearly isn't being considered for the task, as the producers of SNL are on the hunt for a black comic to join the SNL cast and assume the job of portraying Obama. Apparently, according to the below article, Kenan Thompson is thought to be a little too plump! Let's just hope that the SNL producers don't get too "creative" and instead have a white actor in black face play Obama.
FROM THE NEW YORK OBSERVER:
Who Will Play Obama on SNL?
On a recent episode of 30 Rock, an NBC sitcom about the making of a Saturday Night Live–like comedy show, a dilemma arises when the
cast’s only black actor goes missing.
“Can I play Barack Obama?” asked an opportunistic white cast member.
The answer, of course, was no.
It just so happens that the real Saturday Night Live is faced with that very conundrum every week.
Only one current cast member, Kenan Thompson, is black, which would seem to be a desirable trait in portraying Mr. Obama.
But Mr. Thompson—who starred in a movie called Fat Albert—possesses a body type that makes him better suited to execute impressions of Al Sharpton than the lanky Illinois Senator. The result: an Obama-free show.
A spokesman for Lorne Michaels, the show’s longtime producer, said that there was no word yet on who the show would cast as Mr. Obama, or when an Obama character would make its debut.
“We’ll know when we know,” the spokesman, Marc Liepis, said in an e-mail. “Truthfully, there’s no timetable on these things.”
Unfortunately, the only thing Kenan was hired to do was play a fat black woman or a fat gay black guy.
Hi Naima - thanks for the comment! I haven't watched SNL in years, so I haven't seen any of Kenan's sketches. I actually haven't really seen him in anything! I'll do a YouTube search for some clips.
Keenan does do a bit of other stuff on there, I actually think he's pretty talented.
They used to have some white dude play Jesse Jackson, and one white dude did a spot on impression of Prince. They will probably have to go there again....or if Obama wins, hire a new "featured" black player like Finesse Mitchell...
I know this post is old but I just found it searching for Keenan in Google. I think it's sad that he has to play every black male (and even female) even if he doesn't sound or look like them. Thank goodness he didn't play Obama that wouldn't have worked. I've seen him do Al Sharpton and Charles Barkley and both characters sounded the same. Keenan got his start on Nickelodeon and I can't help but typecast him in every skit he's in. He'll always be the kid from the "Fat Burger" skit to me. :)