Saturday Night Live featured player Kam Patterson has delivered about a dozen forgettable lines in his first season on the show. But this week he fired off a few hot takes about his job, and it’s clear he isn’t impressed with SNL.
In an appearance on the Kill Tony podcast last week, Patterson punctuated his disjointed standup session with comments that he found SNL to be “really Gay,” and that he’d “never seen” the show before accepting a spot in the cast.
Patterson said:
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.
Will the comments draw a response from the producers of the show or NBA? Unlikely. Show runner Lorne Michaels has famously preferred a passive aggressive, non-confrontational approach in his position with the long-running show. Michaels has rarely disciplined cast members, whom he basically treats like his children.
During his rant on the Netflix show hosted by Tony Hinchcliffe, Patterson explained that being on an iconic TV show that has evolved into a mainstream celebrity showcase has been difficult to deal with considering his background:
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?
As an octogenarian king-maker, Michaels revels in having icy control over the career of his cast. He also knows that SNL has long ceased to be the edgy program it was when it debuted in 1975. The show once strived to mock celebrity and destroy the staid nature of TV. Now it embraces Hollywood and the glamour of entertainment. It’s safe. Which is why Michaels cast Patterson.
Michaels cares far less about what Patterson says than how it plays on the platforms where SNL is being drown out by edgier comics. Patterson is a conduit for Michaels, SNL, and NBC to connect with an audience, that like Kam, doesn’t pay attention to that “really gay” show.
Make no mistake: Lorne Michaels doesn’t care whether anyone is offended by Patterson’s words. He just hopes they echo in the ears of people who never turn into a network television broadcast. That’s the same reason he brings Shane Gillis to Studio 8H every year.
