Meets His Heroes

Saturday Night Live’s longest-running cast member still gets starstruck.

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“It always knocks your socks off a little bit when you actually get a chance to get close to a very famous person,” Kenan Thompson told Us at the American Museum of Natural History Gala in NYC on Dec. 4. The comic joined SNL (which returns to NBC on Jan. 17) in 2003, making this his 23rd season. Before that, Thompson, 47, was a child star in hits like Kenan & Kel and Good Burger. (Good Burger 2 came out in 2023, more than 20 years after the original.) He shared some of his favorite SNL moments and memories with Us.

We’ve always wondered, do hosts have any say in the musical guests?
I would assume the host has a say in pretty much everything about their week. I’m sure it’s a group conversation.