Kenan Thompson Speaks on His Relationship with 'SNL'—"They Keep Calling Me" (EXCLUSIVE)

Mar. 27 2024, Published 3:58 p.m. ET

Throughout its nearly 50 years, Saturday Night Live has introduced us to a plethora of iconic comic voices. While Kenan Thompson got his start on Nickelodeon’s All That, a sketch show for young people modeled after SNL, he’s cemented his legacy as the longest-running cast member in SNL’s history.

But that means that people are constantly asking Kenan when his last season of SNL will be. And we never want it to be his last! Distractify spoke exclusively with Kenan about when he expects his final season of SNL will be and what he wants for the show’s future.

Kenan Thompson joked that the 2024 season of ‘Saturday Night Live’ would be his last.

When anyone is on a long-running television show, we can’t help but wonder when they’ll tire of it. Before Kenan broke the record, now with 21 SNL seasons under his belt, Darrell Hammond held the record at 14 seasons before leaving in 2009.

So we had to ask Kenan when he expects to leave, and he gave us a minor heart attack for a second.

“Let's make the announcement right now. This is my last season,” he said before adding, “No, I'm just kidding.”

Phew!

He shared that he’s not planning on leaving anytime soon, especially as SNL reaches its 50-year milestone. “I think about you know, time served or making room for someone else to come in,” he added.

“Right now, all those things are kind of in balance. I don't really feel like I'm in anybody's way necessarily. Or I don't overly feel like I've worn out my welcome or anything like that because they keep calling me.”

Many times, cast members leave to go work on other projects or because they’ve already done everything they can do for SNL. But that’s not the case with Kenan.

In the time he’s been on SNL, he’s been in countless other projects. From starring in films like Fat Albert and the Trolls franchise to creating his own television series, Kenan, he’s found a way to balance his longstanding SNL residency while furthering his career.

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” he said of how he makes it all happen.

“It's a time-consuming job, but it's also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity kind of job,” Kenan shared. “So everybody helps with the sacrifice to allow me to pursue my dreams. So I give my family a lot of credit. I give my team a lot of credit, friends, everybody. It’s just a communal effort because people realize that what I do is such an asset to society. Like we're providing joy or providing an opportunity for people to get through adversities with a little bit of laughter and stuff like that.”

But it’s not just Kenan’s longevity that makes him a comedic legacy. On Saturday Night Live alone, Kenan has perfectly nailed several characters that no one else could.

From his Steve Harvey and Charles Barkley impressions to playing Reese De’What in the recurring Cinema Classics, Kenan said that the secret to his character work is “just about being trained.”

Kenan started going to acting classes when he was just 5 years old and it’s clearly paid off.

“There's something to be said for raw talent,” Kenan admitted. “But there's nothing better than raw talent that has been properly trained so that talent can be utilized in the best form possible … By the time I got to SNL, I was really ready for it.”

As ‘SNL’ approaches its 50th season, Kenan has high hopes for its future.

Many classic SNL fans often have something to say about the quality of the show today compared to its earlier days, but if we’ve learned anything from the show’s five decades, it’s that showrunner Lorne Michaels knows how to make magic.

With the right group of people behind the scenes and in front of the camera, every season brings a fresh perspective along with hilarious sketches. As Kenan says, “The beauty of SNL is that it continues to change.”

And every season takes a lot of work. “It's the best as the person sitting on the couch taking it in but also the people that are highly stressed out that are delivering it performance-wise, writing-wise, camera person-wise, director-wise, like so many different departments that are all focused on this one weekly task that has 49 years of significance to society,” Kenan pointed out.

“I want to see it run as long as possible,” he added. “It's already broken all kinds of records and Lorne’s achieved more than a lot of people get to on this planet in its lifetime … It's just a weekly provider of joy is the main feedback that I hear from people like, ‘Man, you've gotten me through some really rough times’ or, ‘We need you guys in these times.’ So it always feels good to be able to be an asset to society.”

Many millennials grew up with Kenan from Mighty Ducks and All That straight through to where he is today on SNL. And he’s definitely an asset to us.

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