In case you missed it, here is a brief timeline of race relations regarding "Saturday Night Live" recently:
Sept. 27: "SNL" cast member Jay Pharoah tells the Grio website that he thinks the show is "too white."
Oct. 14: Longtime cast member
Thursday: Civil rights group ColorofChange pens a letter to “SNL” producer
Saturday: “Scandal” star
Washington and the show’s writers wasted no time in addressing the issue in the episode. In the cold open, Washington played a luminous Michelle to Pharoah’s
One might have expected that Washington was going to have to hurriedly come out in an increasingly disheveled array of costumes and wigs, but ultimately she only portrayed the two women (although the possibility of a Beyoncé impression was raised.) Instead, the writers made the most of their white male surplus, sending out six “All right, all right, all right”-ing Matthew McConaugheys instead. The scene was capped by a very svelte
Was the scene a step in the right direction of "SNL" tackling its diversity issues, or to use Sharpton's words, did it contribute "nothing" to the discussion (or even make light of the situation?) Obviously it would be impossible for Michaels and the "SNL" team to modify its casting decisions immediately, but pretending the tense last few weeks didn't occur would also not be wise. It will be interesting to hear how the scene came to be written and what, if any, input Washington had in it.
Race was mentioned a few other times in the episode after the cold open, once in a talk show called "How's He Doing?" featuring Thompson, Pharoah and Washington as "nonpartisan" black intellectual talking heads addressing the likelihood that President Obama would ever lose their support (answer: highly unlikely.) The poor, innocent television recapper was written into the sketch too, as the characters referenced how much white people love the television show "The Wire:" "I had a white friend who wrote episode recaps of the 'The Wire' on the Internet. Can you imagine? He would watch it, write about it, and then other people would read it!" Hey! What did TV recappers ever do to you, "SNL"? (Oh ...)
In miscellaneous but of-note news from the episode,
Additionally, the ghost of
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Twitter: @Zulkey