Saturday Night Live To Get A New Obama With Jay Pharoah?

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by Eric Cunningham | 5:43 pm, September 2nd, 2010

» 10 comments

This morning the comedy world woke up to the news that there’s a potential deal for Virginia comedian Jay Pharoah to become the fourth new cast member for the 2010-2011 season of Saturday Night Live.

Pharoah has made a small splash online with dead-on impressions of Denzel Washington and Will Smith and dozens of others – including our President. The big question for fans of political comedy is: Does SNL have a new Barack Obama?

Since 2008, Obama has been portrayed by Fred Armisen to mixed reviews – it’s a difficult role to pick up. There’s a racial element, a following that was hyper-sensitive to criticism, and most importantly, there didn’t seem to be a ‘take’ on the President’s mannerisms or attitude that resonated as well as Darrell Hammond‘s smug, lecherous Bill Clinton or Will Ferrell‘s bumbling George W. Bush.

Among Pharoah’s impression repertoire there is a Pres. Obama, and though it’s not as strong as his others, it definitely passes muster. But clearly, Pharoah’s impression is a lot more risqué than Armisen’s — here the president is heard singing about birthday sex. But is the 22-year-old ready to portray what is arguably SNL‘s most important character? I guess we’ll find out in the cold open when the season premieres on September 26th. An SNL spokesperson had no comment.

Watch Pharoah do his Obama on stage, via The Comic’s Comic:

barack obama, Comedy, jay pharoah, late night, obama, President Obama, Saturday Night Live, SNL

http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-M-Chick/507482075 Daniel M. Chick

Do you edit your own pieces? If so, it would excuse the consistent mistakes.
http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

Hey hang on, they can get the real one soon.
felixw

Saturday Night Live treats Obama with kid gloves. He will never get the kind of treatment they dished out to Bush, Palin, etc.
jinjin

I like this site very much

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StandUp

Isn’t it racist to use Obama’s skin color as a basis for choosing someone to portray him on tv? Shame on SNL. They are probably closet tea-baggers and went to Beck’s rally.
writer

Shamu is half black and half white, but they couldn’t fit the tank in the studio.
Eric Cunningham

Good eye, Daniel — sometimes stuff like that’s gonna slip through. If anyone ever spots typos, feel free to shoot me a message, it helps me fix it faster.
sarainitaly

” – including our Presidnet. ”

I usually ignore the typos, since we all make them, but since you asked….
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ruth-Gretzinger/596613915 Ruth Gretzinger

check out Mad TV’s Obama. he appears at 1:50 into this video, but watch the whole thing: their Oprah’s pretty spot-on too. this is the best Obama I’ve heard anywhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg_RNnSd0hk
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Westover/1496648721 Tony Westover

That show is still on?