‘Saturday Night Live’ elects a new Obama; Jay Pharoah to take over role from Fred Armisen
Source: Washington Post
NEW YORK Saturday Night Live has elected a new Barack Obama: Jay Pharoah will take over the plum role of impersonating the president.
SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels announced the casting switch in an interview with The New York Times posted Wednesday. Michaels said it was time to shake it up.
Veteran cast member Fred Armisen has played Obama since 2008. Pharoah joined the show in 2010, and has since stood out for his impressions of Denzel Washington, Eddie Murphy and Will Smith.
Michaels also said that Jason Sudeikis will remain with the show at least until January, and will continue to play Obamas Republican opponent, Mitt Romney.
The 38th season of SNL premieres Saturday with host Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, and musical guest Frank Ocean.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/saturday-night-live-elects-a-new-obama-jay-pharoah-to-take-over-role-from-fred-armisen/2012/09/12/a8c36362-fd51-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html
best news of the day!! love Armisen's other stuff... but his Obama totally blows...
alp227
(32,052 posts)I like Pharaoh in SNL and can't wait to see him as Obama. (Probably also less awkwardness in the dressing room too.)
JenniferJuniper
(4,515 posts)Not that I'm upset about the switch. I love Fred, but his Obama never did much for me.
TheDebbieDee
(11,119 posts)JI7
(89,264 posts)it's too bad they didn't have a good Obama for the 2008 campaign and for his first term.
mzmolly
(51,004 posts)FrenchieCat
(68,867 posts)but the mannerism and carriage in the video is ridiculously wayyyy off! Hope that he's been working on that,
cause it would seem that SNL could do better after all of this time. Now, it just looks like they are going from one extreme to another.....
juajen
(8,515 posts)Obama is going to be one President that no one can imitate; the same for Michelle. Can't see this at all. They would probably do better with empty chairs.
mzmolly
(51,004 posts)to improve. I think he has potential.
mzmolly
(51,004 posts)I hope he's tweaked his impression a bit.
slampoet
(5,032 posts)and he doesn't seem to have anything else. I liked his work before I realized there really wasn't a second half or finish to any of his characters.
Good for Pharoah, and LONG overdue, maybe he will become the second Phil Hartman the show needs.
booksenkatz
(3,466 posts)Iman Crosson. He's got quite a YouTube following and he has begun producing new videos for this election season. I fell in love with this one first:
then loved this one:
&list=PL76FA5183DFF3E43D&index=6&feature=plpp_video
He had several videos that I'd bookmarked that were not musical -- Obama snaps at the DNC convention (my fav), prepares for a debate, etc., that were terribly funny, but he's now got them marked as private. In those videos, he was so spot-on with Obama's mannerisms, it was great to watch! But the musical stuff is enjoyable, too.