New Saturday Night Live cast member Kam Patterson stopped by Kill Tony for the recurring series’ latest Netflix stand-up special, and his performance is blowing up because of some jokes he made about his new employer. During an extended bit about joining the show, he joked that he’d never seen the sketch comedy staple before his casting since it’s for white people. He also made jokes about how “in the nicest way possible” it’s “really gay.”
Many SNL fans are taking the jokes as a middle finger toward the show, though others, especially longtime Kill Tony fans, have been a lot more defensive, arguing this is just his comedy style. Here’s an example of one of the quotes making the rounds on social media…
I think people are more excited for me than I am for myself though. People keep saying, ‘Congratulations. Good job. That’s dope.’ I know how huge it is, but understand something, I’m 26 and I’m black. I’ve never seen the show. I have no idea what the fuck I signed up for. I’m kinda just there. The shit’s not for me. It’s for white people.
The way Kill Tony works is that various comedians come out and perform short stand-up sets in front of Tony Hinchcliffe and a panel of other successful comedians. In this case, Gabriel Iglesias, SNL vet Rob Schneider and Roseanne Barr were there, among others. The above quote essentially worked as Patterson’s intro into his stand-up set and he then transitioned into talking about how he hasn’t known most of the hosts but they all seem to be from Top Gun (shoutout Glen Powell and Miles Teller).
Those bits about the hosts were clearly tongue-in-cheek and aren’t getting much traction, but afterwards, he moved into another bit where he talked about how “gay” SNL is. Patterson said he literally shot at someone once on the streets but now he’s doing coordinated dances on SNL and you don’t understand what that does to someone. It’s that sequence that’s arguably generating the most outrage and headlines. Here’s a portion of the quote…
I’m gonna keep it 100 percent with ya’ll. In the nicest way possible, it’s gay. Like, it’s really gay. It’s gay as fuck. Understand something, I was on national television doing this (dance moves). I’ve shot at someone before. You understand me? You know how crazy that change is in life?
Afterwards, Patterson transitioned into a bit about how SNL has been tough because his friends and family didn’t know how much he made from stand-up before the show, but now that he’s on TV, they’re constantly hitting him up for money. He then did impressions of various family members and got a huge ovation from the crowd before Hinchcliffe and the other comedians talked about how much they enjoyed his set and how much growth he’s shown since he first started making appearances. No one involved hinted at or seemed to have any idea that what he said would become the source of controversy.
The discussion around his stand-up bit and whether it was appropriate really took off a few days ago when someone posted a segment of his performance on the SNL Reddit page. The post quickly blew up and yielded more than seven hundred comments and thousands of likes. Most fans who spoke out were offended or at least frustrated by what he said and felt he was being disrespectful to the show by acting like he was above it or too cool for it. Several large outlets picked up the story and published the quotes, which then pushed the story outside the SNL bubble and into more mainstream conversation.
It’s worth mentioning that Patterson, who just joined the cast at the beginning of this current season, has made similar comments during SNL sketches, especially about the racial make-up of the viewers. He made a Weekend Update appearance where he complained about how the show won’t let him say the n-word. In another bit, he played a character speaking to Santa and joked with Michael Che that they know he watches the show because he’s over a hundred and white. Neither of those bits seemed to attract any backlash from viewers, or at least any backlash that went mainstream.
I’m not going to tell anyone how to feel about this, but to me, it feels a little like making fun of your family members. If you’re doing it with them in good fun, everyone is very down to laugh about it. If they find out you made fun of them behind their backs, they might be a bit more upset or skeptical of your intentions. Exactly what Patterson’s intentions were or what’s inside his heart is unclear. Maybe he loves being on the show and was just trying to make some light jokes about it in good fun. Maybe he doesn’t like it and found a good forum to put his frustrations out there. Only he knows for sure.
It’ll be interesting to see whether Saturday Night Live addresses this controversy or whether he speaks out publicly. There’s a world in which this just quietly goes away, and there’s a world in which this becomes a bigger story. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Fortunately, Saturday Night Live returns to the schedule with its next exciting guest host Finn Wolfhard. I’ll be watching and so will a lot of other people (many of whom are white).
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