It’s been a rocky Black History Month so far, rudely interrupted by white people in blackface and white actors recounting tales of near-violent racism. SNL decided they’d honor the month by having its current black cast members — including Keenan Thompson, Leslie Jones, Ego Nwodim, and Chris Redd — talk about the long-running show’s litany of great black performers, including Garrett Morris and Eddie Murphy.
And then Kyle Mooney dropped in.
The cast member — who earlier this season did a sketch where he dared then-musical guest Kanye West to a rap battle, with hilarious results — butted in, interrupting his black colleagues so that he could whitesplain about Sidney Poitier, Louis Armstrong, and whatever other black entertainers weren’t ever actually on SNL.
“Did you know African Americans’ contribution to culture didn’t begin with Saturday Night Live?” Mooney asked as his co-workers stared on in horror. He was then joined by Beck Bennett, who arrived to stop him…by pointing out that he was only talking about male black performers, not women like Hattie McDaniels, Nina Simone, and Beverly Johnson — the latter slightly obscure enough that even Chris Redd didn’t know who she is.
“It really means the world to us that you Googles all those black names,” Thompson finally said, once he was able to wrest control away from his white SNL staffers. It was the second cutting satire about race in America this episode (after this), and a reminder that white people still have over half of Black History Month left to ruin it.
