Kenan Thompson has a "forever plan" to never leave SNL

The Washington Post

While Leslie Jones is leaving Saturday Night Live after just five seasons, Thompson will be back for his 17th season next month -- even though he'll be busy filming his NBC comedy The Kenan Show. The 41-year-old Thompson says he has no desire to exit SNL. “That’s the forever plan,” Thompson says in a Washington Post profile. “To never have to leave that show.” Thompson revealed how devoted he was when he broke his arm in a bike accident just days before Donald Trump hosted SNL in November 2015. He found a doctor who could discreetly put his arm in a cast so he'd avoid making headlines, and then he performed while hiding his injury. “The writers, they work so hard, they spend all night, and then the only thing people would be mentioning would be like, ‘Did you see Kenan’s broken arm?’ That’s whack,” Thompson says. “You never know how long they’ve been incubating an idea that they got on the show that week." He adds: "Even just the smallest distraction throws off the potential of the experience of the joke. You kind of don’t have permission to not be perfect.” Lorne Michaels says Thompson is “the person I most rely on in the cast." In fact, Michaels says Thompson doubles as a metronome, someone who adjusts the pace on the live show, speeding up or slowing down sketches as needed. Thompson is also valuable for his technical expertise. “So much of a funny sketch can be made or broken by the way it’s shot, or the production elements of it,” fellow cast member Aidy Bryant tells The Post via email. “Having Kenan in your sketch means you also have a producer, director and a writer.”