Truthfully, Ellen wasn’t all that unfunny. But as a Black woman, she’d have had to be a full-on laff riot to leave a memory as anything but unfunny.
To tell you the truth, I’m having trouble thinking of black female cast members from any other sketch comedy shows. There was one on MadTV, and there must have been some on In Living Color but none really stuck in my memory.
The show has always been full of unfunny people. Ellen wasn’t any more unfunny than anyone else. It’s just that white cast members get more chances to stumble into their funny skits and roles after a long string of unfunny ones. Black cast members, let alone black female ones, get featured much less frequently. Which means they have much more pressure to hit a homerun right out of the gates. Otherwise, they get the “unfunny” label.
When Ellen was on SNL, “In Living Color” was a dominant force in TV. If you wanted to get your dose of topical black American humor, why the hell would you watch the whitest show on Earth? Whenever I watch the material she was given on SNL and contrast it with what they were doing on ILC, it’s hard not to cringe at how pigeon-holed she was. When you’re only allowed to be “stereotypical black woman named Shaniqua”, of course you’re going to be unfunny.
I remember one sketch where she works at the grocery store and someone asks if she knows where the collard greens are. “What? You think because I’m BLACK, I gotta know all about the collard greens?” That made me laugh. But I can’t remember her doing anything that wasn’t just a variation on this theme. It’s easy to say this is her fault, but I think not. I blame the white-writing of the show.
I’ll add this.
It does matter what these people look like. SNL’s job is to spoof popular culture. Popular culture stopped being homogenous a very long time ago. And black folks play a huge role in popular culture, believe it or not.
By not having a black woman on the cast, the show can’t adequately cover all of pop culture. No skits about Rhiannon or Beyonce. No Oprah or Michelle Obama jabs. If Keenan won’t do the drag thing anymore, who’s going to do Whoopie? They can’t make fun of the View. Or Viola Davis. Or Halle Berry. Imagine how funny it would be if they could actually have a cast member who can twerk?*
All of these things are perfect grist for the humor mill. But if your cast doesn’t allow for these possibilities, then the show can’t exploit them. A popular show like “Scandal” might as well not exist because you can’t recreate it. So then you’re left with shit like “Gilly” and overplayed Stefon. And then folks like me stop tuning in.
*Not saying black women can automatically do this–since I am disabled in this area. But that’s the thing. A black woman who can’t twerk bucks a stereotype. Anything that challenges stereotypes = funny. And being able to roll with stereotypes can also be funny. SNL is missing an opportunity to use humor to engage people in a “post-racial” way.
Are you high? I, much like all of America, have forgotten nearly all of MADtv’s cast, but two of the three people I can remember are black, one of those two being a woman. Those cast members are Phil LaMarr, Debra Wilson (the black lady), and Nicole Sullivan in case you were wondering. And considering half of In Living Color’s cast was black, and is the only sketch comedy show I can think of that gave an equal spotlight to dark people and dames, I don’t know what your problem is, unless you honestly don’t remember anyone outside of Jim Carrey.
Kim Wayans comes to mind immediately. And T’Keya Keymah, though I had to look up her name, since I could only remember her face.
More than half. Looking it up (and seeing I apparently forgot Kim Coles), there were 20 cast members (not including Twist and the Flygirls) over the 5 seasons, only 6 of them (2 white guys, 3 white women, and an Asian guy) weren’t black.
Any given season save the fifth (which I have ZERO memory of), about half the cast would be the Wayans family alone.
My problem is that the male cast members of In Living Color (whom I can remember pretty vivdly) overshadowed the female ones. (Note that I specified that I was having trouble thinking of black female cast members.) (I also remember Orlando Jones from MadTV—again, not female.)
The reason the audition was publicized is because there was significant social media outrage a few months ago.
Kenan was misquoted in a TV Guide interview as saying there were no black women funny enough to be on SNL. (What he actually said was that, of those who auditioned, none were ready). This was actually pretty big news, but apparently not… um… mainstream news.
The (mis)quote led to a wildfire and put SNL’s casting choices under (justifiably) close examination. Kerry Washington was announced very quickly after. And now this patronizing face-saving scramble of an audition that neglected to include any other minority women.
This season’s cast has already tied the record for the most female cast members. With this hire, they’ll break that record and have seven women on the show at once.
They’ve already got Kate McKinnon, who happens to be both gay and hilarious.
Huh, you’re right, more than half.
Well it’s true David Alan Grier overshadows Kim Wayans in my mind, but I find the inability to recall a single black female cast member odd. Kim Wayans and T’Keyah Crystal Keymah came to mind immediately for me too, and funnily enough I also forgot about Kim Coles even though she seems to be the most famous of the three (and totally looks like my sister). Meh.
I believe filmore already suggested Tyler Perry.
And hot. There’s your elusive lipstick lesbian, Shakes.
That’s no great shakes, since the cast has ballooned again - it may also be the largest cast they’ve ever had.
Another way to look at this - blacks are about 12% of the US population; therefore, black women are about 6%, or one out of 16 people.
If a typical SNL cast is 8-10, then you’d expect a black woman about half the time, if the cast of SNL truly represented America’s demographics.
So the show trends a bit white, but not ridiculously so. And having two black people on the cast is about right - they just happen to both be men. Historically, I don’t think there have been two blacks in the cast at the same time very often. So it trends a bit white, and definitely not Asian. But we’re not talking Family Ties white, either.
In a hundred years, when the US is majority mixed race, people will rightfully look back at us and point and laugh.
Please. She’s the only black female to stay more than a season. If she was just mildly funny, a middling player, she’d be remembered as funny, or at worst “the funny black chick”.
This is just unmitigated bull. White cast members get more chances to find success? Show me the string of unfunny skits Carvey, Meyers, Farley, Hartman, Akroyd, Ferrell, and Murray put out before making something funny. If anything, Cleghorne is remembered among the least funny cast members specifically because she got more chances to feature than her talent level warranted, just like say Rob Schneider, Chris Katan, Victoria Jackson, Horatio Sanz and some would say Tracy Morgan.
Cast members *are *writers on the show. They’re not hired actors. They’re in on sketch development from the beginning and anything they are going to feature in is written by themselves and other writers. If she thought she was being pigeon holed she should have come up with something funnier and more subversive.
All that’s not to say the show wouldn’t benefit from a more diverse cast, as long as the new hire is funny.
I’m sorry, but who is the authority on this? I remember her as a person who was “funny enough to be on SNL”. Which is to say, funny enough to hold my interest until the end of each show and get at least one or two smiles or chuckles out of me. I’d certainly recognize her as a “famous funny person” if I were to see her walking down the street. That is a lot more than I can say for most SNL castmembers in the last 15 years. Old episodes of In Living Color are far more entertaining to me than anything SNL is putting out nowadays.
And yes white cast members get more opportunities to shine. I can’t see how this is a controversial point. Since most of SNL’s sketches are inspired by movies, TV shows, and pop culture icons that cater to white male tastes (because these tastes are what drives the entertainment biz), a white male is going to have an easier time leading in these sketches. A minority actor will never have the casting choices of a Caucasian, even if the former has 3 times as much talent as the latter. What that means is the white guys will have more chances to brand themselves as funny and get their names out there.
Authority on what? Whether she would have to be substantially funnier on the show than others to be remembered as funny because she was a black woman? **Doug **made himself that authority. I disagreed.
Mind you, I’ve never seen her stand-up, which is why I keep saying “on the show”.
First off, the argument was that white cast members get more chances to fail before finding success while the black cast members need to hit a home run on the fist try. I simply disagree. By and large I don’t think anyone on the show got substantially better over time. The ones who are remembered as the greats, such as Carvey, Meyers, Farley, Murphy, Ferrell, Hartman and the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players were all pretty hilarious from the get go. Others were good but not great, stayed that way and tend to blend together or get remembered as, “Oh yeah, they were on SNL weren’t they.” Still others had many people scratching their head wondering why they kept getting featured skits, beating a dead horse with the same trite stuff. Cleghorne was one of them.
Second, you’re still wrong when you flip it around. For starters, they don’t just draw from movies and TV (which does tend to be whiter than real life), but music, sports, politics, and current events in general. There are more than enough black people to parody, which is the whole argument in favor of why they need, not just should have but need a black female cast member. And to the extent that there are *fewer *black people to parody, there are also fewer black cast members competing for the part. Percentage wise I’d guess that it breaks down pretty proportionally.
Not to mention that one the best sketches in the show’s history was Eddie Murphy playing Mr. Robinson in a subversive parody of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. The fact that the person/character is white in real life doesn’t a preclude a black comic from finding humor in it. The reverse does not always hold true.
This is a counterintuitive idea, so I’m not sure why anyone else is supposed to believe it. SNL actors generally come from relative obscurity, with a few bit roles here and there, to performing on TV every week in front of a national audience. Why wouldn’t they become better with practice? More confident and creative? Comedy and writing are skills just like any other, and they can be improved through experience. You think Tina Fey started out with the same confidence and comedic timing that she has now?
You are probably looking back at these people with too much nostalgia. Those that you classify as “good but not great” is probably where the greatest range of growth occurs, and since your categorization scheme is totally subjective, I have no idea who you’re talking about anyway. Would Jimmy Fallon be in this camp? Amy Poehler? I question why Dana Carvey is in your list of “greats” and some people would kill you for putting Ferrell in the same sentence as Eddie Murphy.
Since I’m scratching my head wondering why Carvey would be considered a “great”, one must conclude these pronouncements mean very little.
SNL caters to the 18-35 white male demographic (just like most major networks at that time of night). And I think it’s delusional to think that this is anything but by design. Since SNL producers know whose eyeballs they want glued to the show, they’ve perceived nothing wrong with recruiting actors taken heavily from that demographic, even if that means black women and others end up underrepresented in their portrayals. Since this decision apparently hasn’t kept them from getting advertising dollars (Lord only knows why), they haven’t had an incentive to change their ways.
So let us be clear here. This has nothing to do with who is funny and who is not. This has nothing to do with talent being hard to come by. It has to do with assumptions and advertising dollars. Publicizing their hunt for a black woman buys them some media attention, which gets them a few extra viewers, which keeps them semi-relevant as their reputation for humor continues to slip away. But this move is unlikely to change the diversity of their cast permanently as long as they are the only Saturday night sketch show on the block. But maybe I’m a cynic.
I had thought the bulk of their hires come from Second City, with some from other improv or standup tours, but in any case with a helluva lot of stage experience. There may well be some nervousness among new members, but isn’t that just as easily explained by wanting to establish themselves as major leaguers?
Historically it’s been Second City. But nowadays it’s a pretty good mix of standup, Second Coty, Groundlings And Upright Citizens Brigade.