Profile: Kenan Thompson

Those of us that watched Nickelodeon as kids (I was, indeed, Afraid of the Dark) were indelibly influenced. Ladders slamming against windows, the Crag, the Strongest Man in the World, and silvery liquid puddles* all have their place in our hearts. But one of the best was surely "All That"...and one of the best things about "All That" was Kenan Thompson.


Born in 1978, Kenan starred on "All That" from 1994-1999, and he and Kel Mitchell starred in "Kenan and Kel" from 1996-2000. They managed to transition to the big screen with "Good Burger" in 1997, but Kenan was no stranger to movies: by that point, he already had 1995's "Heavyweights" and 1996's "D2: The Mighty Ducks" under his belt (in which he played a scrappy Southern California street hockey player who helped the Ducks beat the evil Icelandic team). Kenan joined "SNL" as a featured player in 2003 and became a cast member in 2005. He still works in film, with movies like "Snakes on a Plane," "Fat Albert," "My Boss's Daughter" and "The Master of Disguise." Take from that list what you will.

Kenan's upcoming films include this summer's animated "Space Chimps" and the movie "Weiners," which IMDB describes as "a road trip comedy about three friends who travel across the country in a Wiener Wagon to beat up a popular daytime talk show therapist." Frankly (get it?!), I like the sound of that.

While we wait for summer movie season to get into full swing, let's enjoy a mini Kenan retrospective. Here's a clip from Amanda Bynes's first episode at "All That" in 1996 (she was ten). The cold open is about her fitting in with the cast, with some good Kenan face time. Keep watching, though (you know you want to hear that TLC song, anyway): the first skit after the credit sequence is a Lil' Kenan gem--Cooking with Randy, the chef who is obsessed with chocolate.



And, twelve years later: Kenan as French Def Comedy Jam stand-up comic Jean K. Jean on Weekend Update.



Of course, it isn't all TV and movies for Kenan. He is a man of varied interests--he wrote the intro to Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul, and had a piece about getting spanked for lying to his dad in Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul. And last month when Kenan was pulled over in New Jersey, and the cops discovered weed in the car? Kenan, that smooth operator, only got tagged for driving erratically--his passenger, however was charged with possession. Incroyable!

* "Clarissa Explains It All," "GUTS," "The Adventures of Pete & Pete," "The Secret World of Alex Mack." But of course you knew all that.

Dave Foley Tells Us How It's Done

Remember in college when you would conveniently schedule your classes so you'd be back at your dorm room in time to watch the "Kids in the Hall" reruns in the afternoon on your roommate's little white VCR/TV combo that sat on top of the mini-fridge?

Yeah, me too. That was fun.

Here, Dave and the boys explain the ethereal mystery that is the construction of the comedic sketch. Of course, only a third of the KiTH sketches are "typical" sketches. The second third are surrealist, strange, disjointed challenges to the standards of humor, and the final third are songs by Bruce McCullough about everyday objects or guys named Dave. All in all, it's an impressive canon.

A Brief Note of Thanks to Tina Fey and Her Writers

Spoiler warning...below are some quotes from 4/10's new 30 ROCK episode. If it is still waiting for you on your DVR, watch it before you read this post. I wouldn't want to ruin the fun.


On to business. I clasp my hands in grateful glee for two jokes on Thursday's 30 ROCK episode, "MILF Island," their first back after the strike, and I want very much to share them with you. These two jokes are perfect examples why it pays to have women comedy writers in the room. There are just some jokes men might never come up with.

AWESOME JOKE 1
Jack wants Liz to work on a spinoff show for a contestant on the uber-ridiculous reality show "MILF Island." Liz refuses, arguing that she can't pander to the "lowest common denominator." Jack counters with the valid point that Shakespeare wrote for the lowest common denominator, and Liz shoots back, "Shakespeare never had a Confessional Shower sponsored by Dove Pro Age." It's product placement, but the joke works because that is EXACTLY who would sponsor a shower confessional on a reality show starring hot middle-aged moms.

AWESOME JOKE 2
Liz was quoted in the gossip column dissing Jack, and she's trying to keep him from finding out that she was the source. Tracy busts in the room with a New York Post, yelling about how Liz is in the paper. Turns out it isn't her quote Tracy means--he points to a "Cathy" comic, in which Cathy is predictably yelling about chocolate and sporting the trademark pyramid hair frizz. That could be the punch line (har har, Liz likes chocolate like Cathy), but the generous souls at 30 ROCK threw in a SCRUBS-style topper for free: cut to a shot of an exasperated Liz at a bakery, sporting a Cathy haircut, arms in the air and purse over one shoulder, yelling "Chocolate! Chocolate!! Chocolate!!! ACK!" a la Cathy. Beautiful, especially because though well-intentioned, the "Cathy" comic strip is generally understood to represent everything terrible about "female comedy." Watching Tina Fey's team tear down the old guard--or at least poke some holes in it--after twenty-odd years of stand-up about PMS and wrinkles and chocolate cravings is so, so satisfying.

Welcome back, NBC Thursdays!

Boys Don't Make Passes at Girls Who...Don't Laugh At Their Jokes

In the Seattle Times this week, there is an article called, “When it comes to dating, show her the funny” by Nicole Tsong. Blech to that title, but it’s the Seattle Times. They always pull shenanigans like that. Double blech, however, to the tone of the article, which I will excerpt below. It addresses straight relationships and relies on exploring "traditional" male/female roles, and how each gender uses (or doesn't use) humor in romance. The article leaves gay relationships entirely out of the equation, unsurprisingly.

To begin and to keep things balanced, let's start with a good quote:

"If you think of any social relationship, shared laughter is one of the markers of success," said humor expert John Morreall, a professor at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. "A person who tries to be funny and doesn't get a response from the other person, that's real failure."

True. But that little gem of common sense is followed by this nauseating chunk a bit later:

Boys and girls are socialized early with distinct approaches to humor, said humor expert Morreall. Boys are encouraged to entertain and act out, while girls learn to appreciate a joke, not put on the show.

That dynamic is prevalent in dating. To put it bluntly, men want someone who laughs at their punch lines, while women look for someone who makes them giggle.

There are exceptions, of course, with the rise of female comics who have appropriated male humor, like the brash Sarah Silverman. Others have succeeded with a more feminine style, like funny but gentle Ellen DeGeneres. But in general, men are expected to be the funny ones.

Oh, where to start...I’m going to leave that first paragraph alone, as making declarative, sweeping generalizations about gender relations isn’t really my scene. So, going down the list: doesn’t EVERYONE want someone to laugh at their jokes and then make them laugh in return? Isn’t that how friendly communication works? Most properly socialized women I know want men not to amuse them like dancing monkeys but to engage them in discussion. And that bit about “appropriated male humor” manages to both be condescending and faux-women’s libbish all at the same time, which is quite a feat.

So how do we approach this cognitive dissonance? I like to solve problems with rudimentary evolutionary biology (seriously, I do), and it turns out people who experiment on grad students do, too:

In a study published in the academic journal "Evolution and Human Behavior," psychologists Eric Bressler and Sigal Balshine tested graduate students with pictures attached to funny and nonfunny statements and evaluated the way it affected how men and women viewed each other.

They found that humor makes men more desirable to women but does not affect men's view of women.

"We found no evidence that men prefer humorous women as partners," they wrote in the article "The Influence of Humor on Desirability." But "women preferred humorous men as relationship partners, even when the humor they used was unsophisticated."

Men tend to like women who respond to their humor and banter easily, but do not necessarily want the woman to be aggressively funny, Morreall said. Which also means women can get away with being unfunny far easier than a man.

Ooh, lucky us. We don’t have to turn in our comedy homework.

I’ve always found funny men more attractive than non-funny men, as have most of my similarly picky lady friends. You are attracted to potential mates that espouse qualities you desire for your future self and your offspring, should you elect to have any, and if you would like happiness and friendly communication to come your way, well...you develop a junior high crush on Jon Stewart that will never go away.

I’d argue that a good radar and appreciation for humor IS the same thing as a sense of humor. Think about it--people you know who appreciate funny things tend to be funny in their lives, and are able to share jokes with other like-minded folks. When was the last time a conversation you were having devolved into a series of quotes from “The Simpsons” or “The Office”? That might just be aping someone else’s material, but appreciating and celebrating it together is a shared humorous experience.

Between this Seattle Times article and the recent underwhelming feature in Vanity Fair, “Who Says Women Aren’t Funny?” I’m beginning to despair that this tendency to overanalyze gender relations through humor isn’t going the way of phrenology any time soon.

So I’ll guess just shrug it off and close by aping a line from “Futurama:”

It’s true what they say. Men are from Omicron Persei 7, women are from Omicron Persei 9.