January 7, 2014

SNL Finally Casts a Black Woman. Watch Her Take on “Go the Fuck to Sleep” as Michelle Obama


The search is over. Following controversy last year over Saturday Night Live‘s lack of on-camera diversity, the NBC sketch comedy series held an audition for black female comedians. On Monday, SNL revealed their newest cast member: Sasheer Zamata. The comedian and improv veteran will make her SNL debut on January 18, in an episode hosted by Canadian rapper Drake.

Zamata, who trained at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City, is the first black female cast member since Maya Rudolph departed the show in 2007, and only the fifth in SNL history. To get a taste of what you can expect from her, here’s her impression of First Lady Michelle Obama reading an updated version of “Go the Fuck to Sleep“:

UPDATE: The video is now listed as private. Here’s a screenshot of Zamata as Obama, though:

Sasheer Zamata as Michelle Obama

Sasheer Zamata/YouTube

(The video also includes Zamata as Nicki Minaj reading Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham.”)

Zamata’s star has been rising for a few years now. She was praised by Jezebel in 2012, and was named one of Cosmopolitan‘s “13 Funny Women to Watch in 2014.” Her credits include Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer, FX’s Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, and her web series “Pursuit of Sexiness.”

In an interview with “Man Cave Daily” last October, Zamata described how she got into acting: “I knew I wanted to come to [New York], and I knew I wanted to perform, but I didn’t know how,” she said. “I studied theater in college. Before I got to college I thought I wanted to be a journalist. I just wanted to be in front of people, but I didn’t know how. Then I got to college and I didn’t want to study journalism anymore, I wanted to do plays…[After college], I was auditioning for off-Broadway plays, but I kept going to [Upright Citizens Brigade]. I knew of UCB because they came to my school to perform. I was watching them and thinking, man, wherever they came from that’s where I want to go. Bobby Moynihan was one of the performers and someone asked him, ‘How to get a career in comedy?’ Bobby replied, ‘Go to NYC, go to UCB, and work really, really hard.'”

And on January 18, Zamata will join her now fellow SNL cast member Moynihan on national television.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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