People are getting their comedy from their FYP these days—and Saturday Night Live knows it. In the past few years, entering the comedy scene has become less about tight-fives and improv shows at the Comedy Cellar—but more about internet skits, miniseries, and other self-produced content. Now, it looks like SNL is changing with the times (except that time they channeled early-2000s bullying and made fun of Tourettes and Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth.)
Because live from New York, it’s the new era of Saturday Night Live! On Wednesday, SNL announced two new cast members, promoted two others, and revealed two departures. New additions Grace Reiter and Saidah Belo-Osagie are both known for their viral skits, with Belo-Osagie being the writer and director behind short film Tinge as well as the creator of the event series Afrobeats Futura; and Reiter posting skits and quips on TikTok for her 3.9 million followers. Reiter has also appeared in The Chair Company, The Hunger Games (But Better), and is in production for comedy series Minimum Wage. Jane Wickline and Season 51 MVP Ashley Padilla have both been promoted within the cast to become repertory players, and Chloe Fineman and Martin Herlihy are leaving the show. Didn’t see that one coming!
Technically, Wickline also comes from deeply online roots. Her season 50 addition as a featured player marked a new era, because no longer was the road to SNL only for those who spent time at Chicago’s Second City, NYC’s Upright Citizen Brigade, and LA’s Groundlings—but anyone who’d had a taste of online virality.
Wickline’s success— followed by the casting of two very online personalities—may mean that the small screen-to-medium screen pipeline is the new norm for SNL’s casting department. A chronically online approach to producing comedy for a chronically online world, destined to be clipped on TikTok and Instagram Reels. It all comes full circle, I guess.
