Abbott & Costello, Walter Matthau & Jack Lemmon, and Gene Wilder & Richard Pryor, are three of the biggest and funniest comedy duos of all time. However, for those of us from a different generation, Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell were the premier paring, Whether they dazzled on the all-time great sketch comedy show All That, their outrageous Kenan & Kel series, or the two Good Burger movies, Mitchell and Thompson were magic. But it all had to start somewhere, and CinemaBlend just learned about those origins.
I recently sat down with Kenan Thompson, the major Saturday Night Live mainstay, to talk about his part in the new Autotrader “Auto Intelligence” campaign. During our chat, I asked him about the characters he loved playing the most, but what I received instead was an insightful story about him and Kel Mitchell coming up with the “Mavis and Clavis” characters from All That. Interestingly enough, that was also the first time the pair ever got to work together:
That’s when we first grew close, because we were just like making each other just die laughing, imitating all of, you know, the adult males in our life, whether it was our dads or uncles or grandfathers or whatever, or just old Black men in general. You know, it was like what we had observed to that point.
For those who don’t remember, Mavis (Thompson) and Clavis (Mitchell) were two elderly hecklers who’d appear in everything from introductions to an All That episode’s musical guest. The pair also appeared in sketches of their own, during which they danced, sang and made some of the most ridiculous statements, all in the hopes of not making each other laugh. In terms of coming up with the characters, Thompson said he and Mitchell realized that they were onto something, and not just with the bit from one of the best ‘90s Nickelodeon shows:
And we were like right at the same kind of like observation points. So, we were like, ‘Yo, we are the same person.’ And we became brothers immediately. So, yeah, Mavis and Clavis was a lot of fun.
Mavis and Clavis would end up becoming a staple of All That’s first five seasons, with their signature back and forth of “Hey Clavis, wake up! The show is over!” and “Ah yeah, kick it!” being played during the closing credits of every episode during that stretch.
Similarly, Thompson and Mitchell would forever be tied to one another after being main cast members on All That for years. They'd eventually branch off on their own for their eponymous sitcom and Good Burger. Though their relationship wasn’t without its ups and downs, the two have worked together in recent years, and Thompson still holds his longtime comedy partner in high regard. (He also isn’t opposed to a Kenan & Kel revival.)
Hopefully, there’ll come a day when Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell revive Mavis and Clavis for old time’s sake, either for another Autotrader campaign to help folks find a new car (without all the cantankerous observations) or on Saturday Night Live. Speaking of which, you’ll be able to watch SNL Season 51 when the show lands on the 2025 TV schedule on October 4.
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