Can we talk about Jay Pharoah for a second?
For all you non-Saturday Night Live watchers out there (first of all, what’s wrong with you?!), Jay joined the cast a few years ago, but has drawn a lot of attention as of late for pointing out that the “show is too white”. In his defense, he’s completely right, seeing as how there are only 2 African-Americans on the show – Jay and everyone’s favorite former French man in a bathtub Keenan Thompson – and the last black woman in the cast was Maya Rudolph, and she was only half-black!
That being said, Keenan is usually relegated to playing the black woman in sketches, like Whoopi Goldberg on The View. But on this past week’s episode hosted by the FLAWLESS Kerry Washington, they took advantage of Ms. Olivia Pope and addressed the controversy head-on.
Despite the fact the show IS “too white”, I’m glad Jay and Keenan got a chance to be in a lot of sketches this week, including my FAVE – the What Does My Girl Say parody, which I’ve watched at least 3 times a day since Saturday – it was a great ep to showcase his talent, especially in the impression arena.
As seen in that video above, Jay does an amazing Barack Obama, and has proved that he’s one of the best impressionists to come on the show since the great Darrell Hammond. So to continue Jay’s successful streak following the last episode, here are some of his other outstanding impressions. Incidentally, they happen to all be black celebrities.
Cookies + Sangria 