Thursday, December 12, 2013

Looks Like SNL Was Paying Attention To The Criticism

One of the major reasons I stopped watching NBC's Saturday Night Live long ago (except for the recent show in which Kerry Washington was the host of course) is not only because it ceased being humorous to me, but I don't see people who represent my ethnic heritage significantly represented as members of the cast.

And yeah, I go way back to the SNL original cast in the 70's. 
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Rumors are flying there was a recent double secret audition held in Los Angeles for Black women only to address that problem   11-25 Black comediennes were auditioned for spots in either next season's SNL or one will be added in January, depending on what you hear or read, and yeah it's sorely needed.

Black women have a long, distinguished history in standup comedy starting with Jackie 'Moms' Mabley and continuing through to the present day with people like Marsha Warfield, Whoopi Goldberg, Kim Coles, Kim Wayans and one of the few who actually made it onto SNL in Maya Rudolph. 

It mystifies me when In Living Color proved that Black comedians not only are funny, but can get ratings from mainstream audiences, that SNL didn't do so a long time ago.  It's a travesty that you can count the number of Black women on one hand that SNL has had on their show in its nearly 40 year history, and hope they are on the road to expeditiously correcting that. 

By the way, may also help immensely if you diversify your team of SNL writers while you're at it.

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