In the words of Kanye, I am echoing his disdain by stating that Saturday Night Live, commonly abbreviated as SNL, doesn’t care about Black Comediennes. Well kinda.
I only watch SNL for one reason; the celebrity hosts. Last season, the only two episodes worth watching were featuring hosts Jamie Foxx and Justin Timberlake. JT’s performance however was not quite up to par with his previous appearances, so it doesn’t leave much to be desired for how funny SNL actually has been within the last few years.
Some would argue the last few decades.
My generation of SNL funny were in the days of cast members Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, and David Spade. They KILLED it on SNL for me and I could never drink a beverage and watch these guys perform at the same time. While these guys were genuinely talented comedians, they received precedence because of one, superficial fact; they were GUYS. When the 'Women of SNL' came in during the era of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph, I was thrilled to see women getting more sketches than the guys! These ladies were crazy funny!
I’ve watched SNL off and on since I was kid. I remember seeing Ellen Cleghorne for the first time and feeling a sense of comfort seeing a brown girl on TV making me laugh hysterically and holding her own among a cast of mostly males and whites. Ellen’s sketches were sparse and rare at times, but I still relished every moment she was on screen.
Historically, there have only been 4 Black female cast members in the history of SNL since its inception: Yvonne Hudson, Danitra Vance, Ellen Cleghorne, and Maya Rudolph. Premiering on October 11, 1975 Saturday Night Live has been on the air for almost 40 years.
I’m not upset about the fact in nearly 40 years only 4 black women have appeared as cast members, and that’s one black woman per decade if you do the math.
I’m not upset about the fact that each of these cast members were undervalued and underrated during their stints on the show when they aired.
I’m not even upset about the fact that the first Black female cast member only appeared for one season and is somehow forgotten when we have this conversation since Vance, Cleghorne, and Rudolph appeared in multiple seasons.
No I’m not upset about any of those things at all. You know what infuriates me?
THIS
 |
| Keenan Thompson as Whoopi Goldberg |
The ABC daytime talk show The View currently has two Black female co-hosts. Keenan Thompson dresses up in drag to play Whoopi Goldberg. Sherri Shepherd on the other hand, is somehow dismissed from these sketches every time it airs. It appears that since the SNL cast have no Black comediennes and somehow Jay Pharoah has not yet been asked to also dress up as a woman to fill the shoes of a Black female, the sketch is short-sided in its lackadaisical attempt to parody the ABC daytime talk show The View,
Seriously?
What kills me the most is that SNL keeps riding this parody sketch and will continue to do so until the wheels fall off! Why do we need Kenan Thompson in drag in the first place? I’m sure he wonders the same thing every time he receives the dreaded “The View” script in hand and wonders, why oh why must I wear the Whoopi wig again?
Kenan. Dude. We feel your pain.
Here’s my issue with this whole misrepresentation-of-black-women-on-SNL thing.
IT FREAKIN SUCKS!
I know the writers of SNL are part of the old boys network and it’s a lily white one at that. I get the fact that we don’t have enough writers of color out there to provide content that speak to our community or afford opportunities to budding comedians of color to be given a shot to become the next Andy Samberg or Jimmy Fallon. I will also mention that the Asian community should be even more pissed about the fact that Fred Armisen (who is part Japanese) is the only Asian that has ever appeared on SNL. That means no Asian comediennes have ever been given a second glance at being cast in the company of SNL.
Wow. I would have loved to have seen Margaret Cho kill it on SNL.
So here’s what I would like to do. I would like to propose a list of black female comediennes who would have been perfect as cast members on SNL. I suggest that SNL take a deep hard look at their archaic methods of casting and look at the real world. I’m not here to propose change to SNL. It’s been almost 40 years, they’re not budging. However, I would love to see a NEW sketch comedy show for women of color to present themselves as the funny, quirky, eccentric, and humorous women that they are.
The Comediennes of Color Network
The title isn’t exactly official but you get my drift. Here is a list of the comediennes I would like to see on this network and I think Comedy Central should own the rights. Here we go:
Executive Produced by Aisha Tyler, Wanda Sykes, and Whoopi Goldberg
Starring special guests:
Debra Wilson of Mad TV fame
Kim Wayans
Mo'nique
Yvette Nicole Brown
Newbies:
Issa Rae
Jessica Williams
Nicole Byer
Rebecca O’Neal
Sasheer Zamata
Naomi Ekperigin
Franchesca Ramsey
We are living in a time right now where we can control and dictate the flow of what can be mainstream and popular and what will become passé. Consumer demand commands a great deal of respect in the world of television. Fans have the power to command what they would like to see on TV. Social media have galvanized fans, through the act of live-tweeting, to catapult shows like Scandal into cult-classic status. Issa Rae took to YouTube and created a web series about a nerdy Black girl and became a YouTube superstar who is now working on her own prime time HBO series.
The internet is a powerful media tool that is undervalued in our community. We should use the Internet to create original content and start our own networks. This is not a way to be divisive and detach. This is an opportunity to bring new, unique, and bold substantive content that would otherwise be ignored by mainstream media. To place more emphasis on my point earlier, if SNL has hired only 4 Black comediennes in 40 years, can we reasonably expect NBC to change their mind and hire a rainbow colored cast filled with women and minorities all of the sudden? Please excuse my lack of optimism and contemptuous tone in this piece, but my expectations for a Black woman to become a new SNL cast member are very low.
I hope I can be proven wrong, and in fact I WANT to be proven wrong. However, in the meantime I suggest Black women should look to to constructing their own content, because frankly it appears we only have one another to look out for.
The list above of course is a very short list of women whom I’ve interacted with via the inter webs or I have appreciated their talent showcased on TV.
So who would you add to this list?
What are your thoughts about a network for WOC comediennes?
