Kenan Thompson, longest running SNL cast member, is stuff of legend at this point. From the beginning, he’s nailed characters: All That’s tub-bound frenchman, Pierre Escargot, scheming straight man to longtime pal, Kel Mitchell’s goofball on their eponymous Nickelodeon show and the slew of Saturday Night Live favorites (among so much more). On his list of feats sits Reba McEntire, and the funnyman shares how she got on the roster in 2009. Not only that, he reveals how she felt about it, too.
Ahead of returning as an SNL Season 51 cast member, the Good Burger star joined The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast to talk all things 30 Rock. Quickly, the supreme 2000 digital short featuring the faux McEntire was brought to the table because of its innate humorous nature. (The music parody is Andy Samberg as himself and Thompson tricking the former to believe he is McEntire.)
Before Andy Samberg and the creative crew's collab came to be, Thompson had tried to pitch a typical sketch himself. This was after seeing the country singer do a hyper-specific ad that inspired him to pick up mimicking her, as he said:
Well, I mean, Andy came and was like, ‘Hey, we want to, like, redo that thing you tried last week.’ Cuz I had tried the Reba thing, as just like a straight up sketch, like a commercial parody, because I saw her do like the American Eagle ad or something to try to protect American bald eagles and I just was recreating that.
Even the origin of how this gag came to be is incredible. As mentioned, after having seen the ad, the Kenan star casually practiced his McEntire which led to fleshing out a parody commercial for Fiddle Faddle popcorn with a friend. Then, that’s how his straight pitch (with no explanation of why he was donning the red wig) made it to the table, but flopped. And even though the material didn't fly, it still made a path for the infamous “Two Worlds Collide” ft. Reba McEntire digital short.
But with no clear cut reason as to why the now 47-year-old would take on the role, the idea (as mentioned) was officially cut. He shared that’s when the oddball expression’s life was put on the shelf, as he said:
And yeah, that was, that was kind of how it went because that didn't make sense at all because I didn't explain why I was pretending to be Reba.
I’m so glad that The Lonely Island boys saw legs within Thompson’s out of left field vision and ran with it. Not long after the failed table read, the idea molted into the short we know today. It really is masterful in how the music video’s story splits and reveals the lol-worthy truth of why Thompson is in a signature red wig.
On top of the A+ online sketch, the impersonatee, and Reba star, apparently loved the bit. Seth Meyers was the first to bring up that McEntire got a kick out of Thompson’s getup but the rest agreed. The impersonator of the Grammy winner even accompanied her to present at the Country Music Awards in 2010 as her. He revealed that it was an excellent experience and she highly enjoyed showing him around that evening by saying:
She was great. Like, she welcomed me. Like, she was arm-in-arm with me.
Clearly there’s a lot of online sleuthing I need to get into between the original commercial and the CMA’s spot these two shared. I’m not surprised that she had fun with the joke and video, the “Fancy,” artist always seems like she’s up for a good laugh. It’s a comedy pairing I never would’ve known I needed until the two worlds actually collided, and now I’m hooked.
Fingers crossed that Reba McEntire shows up as a guest on Saturday Night Live as her show Happy’s Place returns to the 2025 TV guide this November. I’d also gladly accept a random revival of Kenan Thompson’s impersonation of her in just as a random way of how it all began.
Mark your calendars for SNL’s Season 51 return, October 4 on the titular night at 11:30 p.m. EST. Or, make sure to have a Peacock subscription ready to go to stream it the day after.
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