Yesterday I listened to an interview with Kenan Thompson and his long time writing partner at SNL, Bryan Tucker about how they create characters together.
Throughout the interview they played clips from Kenan’s sketches on SNL and I found myself constantly looking like a fool for laughing out loud at Wal-Mart.
Side note: One time I had to leave a Planet Fitness because Grown Ups 2 was playing on one of the tvs and I scream-laughed at some dumb joke. Everyone stared at me and so I had to run away.
When I finished the interview I started watching a ton of old SNL videos and it reminded me how good Kenan Thompson is. He doesn’t get the credit he deserves for being one of the most solid and reliable performers on SNL. Bryan Tucker thinks so too. He wrote a LOVELY tribute to Kenan on Slate that opens like this:
“Here’s a secret. If you’re a Saturday Night Live writer, and you want to get an extra laugh in your script, just add this line: “KENAN REACTS.” Sure, it’s sort of cheating. But we still do it sometimes. Because it works.”
I feel like this sketch captures that perfectly.