SNL’s Sasheer Zamata Makes Her Debut
While host and musical guest Drake was supposed to be the center of attention during Saturday Night Live’s return, there was only one person that had all eyes on her, and that was new cast member Sasheer Zamata. A former UCB improv member and stand up comedian, Zamata’s inclusion on SNL happened over the holiday break after producer Lorne Michaels held auditions due to the controversy the show has received for white washing.
Since Maya Rudolph’s exit, Zamata’s appearance on the show was significant because she is now the first African-American on the sketch comedy show since 2007. Everyone was interested to see how Zamata would hold up.
While she’s just a featured player, the comedian did get more attention, and a bigger opportunity to show audiences what she can do. It turns out, she’s pretty flexible and isn’t just someone Michaels got to fill in impressions of Beyonce, Oprah, or the First Lady.
Last night, the 27-year-old comedian played original characters on Saturday Night Live: a border high-school student and a 13 year-old embarrassed teen. As expected, the weight of the show wasn’t on her shoulders, but she still had enough to do on her debut episode.
Here’s a roundup of Sasheer’s best skits:
Drake Throws Another Bar Mitzvah
During this sketch, Zamata played the aunt along with a probably very relieved Kenan Thompson’s Uncle Larry. The two played aunt and uncle to real life Jewish performer Drake, and while she doesn’t do much in this sketch, it’s nice to see her standing arm and arm with Thompson, who had originally said that there are no funny African American female comedians, making Michaels start his quest to find one.
Rihanna Twerks on TV
Zamata tapped into her impressions wheel in her best sketch of the night as Rihanna. While it wasn’t a spot-on impression, the comedian got most of the R&B singer’s inflection right to pull off a hysterical Rihanna. In the sketch, Rihanna shakes her money maker in early 90s sitcom “Blossom.” It was just one segment in an ongoing series of “Hip Hop Classics: Before They Were Stars.” If they can pull off Rihanna crashing the sets of other famous 90s throwbacks, this might become a thing.
Truth or Date
In this sketch, Zamata plays a pretty convincing red-faced teen at a slumber party. In the sketch, Zamata play’s Drake’s daughter and fails to keep the attention of her slumber party attendees when one of her friends admits that she has a crush on Zamata’s dorky dad. While there wasn’t much for Zamata to do while playing the “straight man”, she still made the best of it.
Head of The Class
This is another sketch that called for Sasheer to play a high school teen. This time, her teen is locked in detention, but gets upstaged by Drake who takes center-stage in the sketch by having a thing for poetry teacher Vanessa Bayer.
What did you think of Sasheer Zamata?
