When Jay Pharoah joined the cast of Saturday Night Live he brought his impressions of Will Smith and Denzel Washington to the table . But Pharoah’s best impersonation was kept off screen since the late night sketch show already had a President Obama in Fred Armisen. Well, that’s going to change this year.
Armisen has been playing President Obama since 2008. If the president wins a second term Jay Pharoah will be thrust firmly into the spotlight.
Pharoah has been perfecting his Obama impersonation in his stand-up act but has never been able to impersonate the president on SNL because that part had already been cast when he arrived in 2010.
Lorne Michaels, who recently added three new members to the SNL cast , said that he was looking forward to shaking things up a little this season.
“Jay has been doing Obama in his act this summer, and Jay is coming into his own. I just thought it might be time to shake it up.”
Here’s a video of Jay Pharoah doing his President Obama impersonation in 2009.
Pretty good, right?
Here’s a video of SNL’s current Obama.
With Pharoah taking over the Obama role, and Jason Sudeikis agreeing to stay on as Mitt Romney through the 2012 Presidential election, it looks like SNL has a pretty solid cast for its 38th season.
What do you think of Jay Pharoah’s impersonation of President Obama?
