Saturday Night Live has a major milestone to celebrate in the 2025 TV schedule with the 50th anniversary of its premiere way back in 1975. Believe it or not, one cast member has been part of the show for nearly half of that long run: Kenan Thompson. The All That alum is currently in his 22nd season, and he has opened up about why the writers are able to craft sketches differently for him than other cast members.
The longest-running SNL star appeared on the Chazz Palminteri Show to talk about his career, his inspirations, and what makes him a "fish out of water" on the NBC mainstay for all these years. (You can find all of Thompson's seasons so far streaming with a Peacock subscription now.) After Palminteri cited SNL creator Lorne Michaels commenting about sketch comedy writers being able to just include "Kenan Reacts" in scripts instead of needing to give him specific instructions, Thompson responded:
It's hyper-flattering because I am sort of a fish out of water-ish, only because I consider myself an actor. I do a lot of comedy, yes, but I'm not a joke-teller and I didn't go to improv school. I just started working young and it's been in the comedy realm basically.
Kenan Thompson is certainly best known for his work on comedies, including scripted sitcoms ranging from Kenan & Kel early in his career to his self-titled NBC sitcom that sadly lasted only two seasons before ending in 2022. He's most famous for his work on sketch comedy shows, though, starting with Nickelodeon's All That all the way back in 1994 and leading to 22 seasons of SNL, just over thirty years later.
But he still sees himself as an actor rather than a comedian, and his approach clearly has been working. It's just not an approach that can be written into SNL scripts for every cast member, as he continued:
I've done versions of [stand-up comedy], speaking at colleges and stuff that like that. But I had to do stand-up for my audition for SNL, which was terrifying. But no, I didn't grow up as a stand-up comic. I'm an actor. Like, 'Kenan reacts,' just give me the ball. Those are things you give to an actor that you trust to an actor.
Kel Mitchell, who starred in Good Burger and of course Kenan & Kel with Thompson, spoke about his own disastrous attempt to do stand-up to audition for Saturday Night Live. Thompson himself doesn't seem too fond of the memory of his own audition, but nailing it certainly changed his life and career in major ways.
As somebody who watched Kenan Thompson on All That back in the day and still looks forward to his sketches as he accumulates SNL season after SNL season, I'm always happy to see him cracking up audiences while rarely breaking himself. That's not to say he hasn't experienced an emotional downside to staying on SNL for so long as he has, but the laughs keep coming.
Still, the YouTube page for the sketch comedy show has a full video dedicated to "Kenan Reacts" moments for a reason, and I think my favorites have to involve his take on Steve Harvey. Take a look:
Hopefully Kenan Thompson isn't going to leave Saturday Night Live any time soon, and the show is currently on winter hiatus. You can check out earlier episodes streaming on Peacock, if you need a fix. After his comments about considering himself an actor rather than a comedian, I'd be interested in seeing him tackle a more dramatic role at some point in the future. The Kenan sitcom wasn't exactly slapstick, but it was still a sitcom.
