Jay Pharoah is the newest Saturday Night Live alum to slam the show for its practices.
Pharoah’s departure from the show came as a huge surprise to fans, but now he’s finally speaking up about what happened.
In an interview with Hot 97’s Ebro In The Morning, Pharoah said,
“They put people into boxes. Whatever they want you to do, they expect you to do.”
Jay, known for his impressions on the show, also noted that SNL kind of “gave up on the Obama thing,” and that Pharoah was put in sketches less and less.
He also mentioned that he was almost fired years before for speaking up on the show’s lack of diversity.
Pharoah’s departure from SNL isn’t stopping him. Deadline reports that he is now working on a Showtime series called White Famous, based on Jamie Foxx’s experience working his way up in the business.
Despite the somewhat negative attitude towards the show, Pharoah confirmed that he has no hard feelings against SNL’s well-known producer. “Ain’t no beef with Lorne… we’re on good graces,” said Jay.
Fellow ex-cast mate Noel Wells (who was also fired) recently echoed similar sentiments to Pharoah and called the show “comedy dinosaurs,” and criticized it for basically becoming a formulaic machine.
SNL seems to be on a firing streak and Taran Killam, another beloved SNL cast member, was given the boot the same year. He recently opened up about what it was like to have Trump on the show, calling him a “moron.” Killam is finding new success on Broadway as King George in Hamilton.
Obviously, all of the comedian’s could be considered “disgruntled employees,” but we wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss them. Prior to the 2016 election, SNL had been steadily losing viewership and even their most loyal fans were starting to find the show a bit irrelevant.
Watch the full interview with Jay Pharoah below.
