During the Monday episode of her namesake talk show, host Sherri Shepherd called on Saturday Night Live to “not disappoint” viewers and hire a Black woman in the wake of repertory player Ego Nwodim‘s exit.
“When I watched Saturday Night Live this weekend, I did notice something was missing: Ego Nwodim left the show,” she began, praising Nwodim’s viral Miss Eggy sketch as one of her “funniest.” “And she was their only Black female cast member, so now there are no Black women on SNL. So what do I say to SNL? Y’all gotta hurry up, and you gotta find somebody — this is a ‘break glass in case of an emergency.’ It is an emergency.”
“We gotta have representation on that show,” Shepherd noted, adding that doing so is “so important.”
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Shepherd noted SNL‘s dismal track record in hiring Black female talent, noting that Kenan Thompson would often have to dress in drag to do impressions of Black women in pop culture.
“When I cohosted The View, there was no Black woman on the show to play me,” Shepherd recalled. “There was no Black woman to even play Whoopi [Goldberg] — Kenan Thompson would play Whoopi at the table when they spoofed us!”
And, in 2009, Shepherd was spoofed by none other than host Tracy Morgan: “Then they had the nerve, when Tracy Morgan guest hosted, Tracy Morgan played me on the daggone show,” she said. Laughing at a still of the 30 Rock alum on the screen, she added, “They had Tracy Morgan in that old tired Shake-N-Go wig, looking like he sits third row at church and serves the dinners after service. He’s even still got a five o’clock shadow.”
Without Nwodim, it’ll be the first time in over a decade that the Lorne Michaels-created late-night show will be sans a Black actress/comic. The last time was before 2014, when Sasheer Zamata and Leslie Jones joined the cast.
In 2013, Thompson said of how the show will address the lack of Black women on the cast when it comes to celebrity impressions: “I don’t know. We just haven’t done them. That’s what I’m saying. Maybe [Jay Pharaoh] will do it or something, but even he doesn’t really want to do it.”
Shepherd said, she’s “trying to understand” given that the show is regaining its “bearings” following Nwodim’s departure. “What I don’t like hearing is ‘We can’t find anybody,’” she continued. “There are lots of talented Black female comics that you can cast on SNL. If you go to any comedy club or improv place, they are out there waiting for this opportunity, getting ready for this very opportunity.”
She shouted out Tacarra Williams, B-Phlat, and Yamaneika Saunders — Black female comics who have appeared on her show — as some names, as well as “my comedy producer Robin Montague; she is a comedy legend who keeps us laughing all day long.”
Shepherd concluded, “SNL, do not disappoint us. You are charged!”
Watch the episode moment below: