Over 20 seasons, Thompson has delivered the sort of constant, dedicated character work that may wring laughs out of even the present’s most lackluster episodes.
It wasn’t precisely a scene-stealing second—only a bodily gag executed seamlessly. Kenan Thompson performed Kevin, a person who was braggadociously excited to trip the amusement-park attraction Mission Slingshot, which promised to shoot riders up 400 toes in three seconds. Strapped in beside his extra timid buddy (performed by five-time host Woody Harrelson), Kevin shortly succumbed to the staggering heights and handed out. First his head lolled ahead in response to the gravitational power, then his physique flopped backwards. The sketch hinged on Thompson’s physicality, and he delivered within the exact but understated approach that’s come to outline his 20 years on Saturday Night time Stay.
Now the longest-running forged member on the present, Thompson has turn into SNL’s quiet coronary heart. His presence has achieved a lot to regular a very uneven season, and final evening emphasised how a lot his refined skills add to a present that’s liable to celebrating louder personalities. It wasn’t that Thompson had a breakthrough episode. As an alternative, he merely saved issues going, providing a consistency that saved the flat episode from crumbling totally.
It’s no secret that Saturday Night time Stay lacks a giant star in the meanwhile. The present said as a lot throughout the season premiere’s chilly open, when it recommended that Bowen Yang would shoulder extra of the burden following the departure of a number of tenured forged members on the finish of final season. Fairly than play up anybody forged member, nevertheless, the present has targeting getting its present forged to coalesce this season. And it’s leaned closely on Thompson. He doesn’t sometimes get the sparkly moments a few of his former castmates achieved, however he’s proved repeatedly what a stalwart scene associate he’s. He’s a reminder concerning the significance of ensemble on SNL.
When Thompson joined SNL in 2003, he was touted as the primary forged member to be born after the present’s 1975 debut. However even at age 25, he already provided a wealth of expertise. Earlier than I spent my Saturday nights watching SNL, I spent them watching Thompson on Nickelodeon’s sketch collection All That, the place he performed oddball characters such because the French trainer Pierre Escargot, the chocolate-loving cooking host Randy, and Bradley the Huge Ol’ Child. (Earlier this season, SNL nodded to his historical past when Keke Palmer hosted and took part in a gritty reboot of the sitcom Kenan & Kel, which Thompson starred in with Kel Mitchell.) Thompson clearly had a ball exploiting foolish moments, a trait he’s dropped at SNL. You may see it in his smirk.
On SNL, Thompson hasn’t amassed as many memorable authentic characters as he did on All That—or as many as another forged members have developed on the present. His huge declare to fame stays Diondre Cole, the What Up With That? host extra eager about singing his speak present’s theme track than interviewing his well-known friends. However his prolonged scroll of impressions—Steve Harvey, Whoopi Goldberg, Invoice Cosby—has saved the present churning. He’s additionally formed SNL in different vital methods, like when he refused to decorate in drag to assist immediate the present to rent a Black lady.
However Thompson is most adept at creating one-off characters, those that exist in a fleeting second of absurdity. Throughout one of many present’s well-known sketches, “Diner Lobster,” Thompson performed the lobster equal of Les Miserables’ Jean Valjean. Rolled onto the set in a effervescent lobster tank, sporting a French-soldier costume and huge lobster claws, he proudly started singing the track “Who Am I?” Who else however Thompson might lend an operatic-lobster scene a lot gravitas, humor, and pathos?
He brings that very same craftsmanship even to lackluster sketches, wringing humor out of unfunny materials by imbuing his characters with a winking appeal. It’s an strategy that has grown increasingly more essential this season, as a result of many sketches haven’t persistently landed their comedic punches. For instance, when Megan Thee Stallion hosted, he infused a weak sketch a couple of father visiting his daughter’s new, distant home with a featherbrained paternal goofiness that made her break character.
Thompson is a delight to observe every time he’s onscreen, as a result of he’s all the time having enjoyable himself. Week after week, he genuinely by no means appears to tire of the playfulness of reside TV. As SNL searches for its subsequent huge star, the present is overlooking the one proper beneath its nostril. Thompson has constructed a distinct sort of legacy: dependable excellence.
