Random Thought, Terry Crews Edition...

Catching the new batch of Old Spice Bodywash ads featuring topless Terry Crews, has reaffirmed my belief that this man needs to be a regular on Saturday Night Live.

They've never had a black actor on the show who could play both intimidating and funny at the same time. They've all been skinny, with Kenan being the sole exception to the skinny black dude rule, but he's rolly-polly, and not at all physically imposing.

They've never had a physically imposing guy on the show in general, so a non-wimp brings a great range of comic possibilities that they haven't had a chance to explore.

They'd run into trouble if all he did was menacing type roles, but with his looks, him in a bow-tie playing a milquetoast would be just as funny as him being the angry scary guy.

Hire him already Lorne Michaels, the show needs him, desperately. Also, he'd make a great Michelle Obama...

(also, I still say they need to go and get Seth Green, too, pairing big ass Terry Crews with tiny ass Seth Green opens up a myriad of comic possibilities)

Me and My Folks (Christmas 74)

(picked up a slide scanner, testing it out, this shot was underexposed, might have overcompensated a bit, I'm the wee one, and those are my parents, my grandparents had traveled to Japan that year, hence the kimonos as presents)

UPDATE:

For the record, my father is not Richard Pryor (firstly, Richard is much skinnier than my father, and secondly my father did far less coke and never freebased, or set himself on fire), though maybe the kimono, and memories of the sketch below might have lead to some confusion...

At Least It Won't Be Kenan Thompson In a Wig . . .

SNL decides not to go looking to dig up Ellen Cleghorne, instead are rumored to be getting Queen Latifah to be their Gwen Ifill.

(I agree with one of the Defamer commenters, Tracy Morgan in drag might be teh funny, though)

If I Were Tina Fey's Business Manager . . .

Ever since Gov. Palin was announced as Sen. McCain's pick, speculation turned to whether or not Tina Fey would play her on SNL.

She's not on staff anymore, but given the resemblance, she'd be a natural for the part, and poking around the interwebs, it seems expected, and if there isn't a Fey as Palin sketch in their first week back, I think folks will feel cheated.

What does that smell like? Smells like leverage, and lots of it. Lorne Michaels is a cheap bastard, but he's a smart cheap bastard, and he knows that for the duration of the election season he'll need Tina Fey to come in and deliver a sketch a week as Palin.

Don't know if they've ever solved their Barack problem, their first attempts were terrible, and I have no idea how they'll handle McCain, he presents them with some problems as well.

I'd say it's worth watching to see what happens, but we are talking about Saturday Night Live, and 'worth watching' and SNL really don't go together that often. Plus, they won't play fair with the politics, so whatever they come up with for Fey as Palin will be so absurdly offensive that the backlash from the first attempt might prevent any future appearances.

They could get away with offensive absurdity when they were a hip young show back in 1976, but now they are a venerable institution, a cash cow for NBC/Universal, and habitually play things safely, so I don't expect much from them.

But in the mean time, if Fey's business manager is at all competent, Fey will hold out for an unseemly pile of loot before coming back to the show temporarily. Afterall, she's a working mom with a wee one at home, so if she's going to give up a few rehearsals and Saturday evenings while also shooting 30 Rock, she's going to need serious compensation.