Key Points
Kenan Thompson talked Saturday Night Live on a new episode of The Rundown.
He said that he and Colin Jost had shared an office for eight years, which led to them discussing a certain topic from ’70s pop culture.
Jost had no idea Scared Straight existed before writing the sketch.
Blame Colin Jost for Saturday Night Live‘s recurring “Scared Straight” sketch.
Kenan Thompson revealed in a new episode of SNL‘s The Rundown, a behind-the-scenes series on which cast members, alums, and guests talk about their favorite moments from the show, that he and Jost spent a lot of time working together.
“Me and Colin were office mates for like eight years,” Thompson explained. “I mean, that’s how ‘Scared Straight’ came about. Colin had never seen it. Showed it to him and then watched his mind work.”
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In the ’70s, the documentary Scared Straight and TV specials captured a program in which convicts confronted juvenile delinquents in an attempt to keep them from ending up in prison as adults.
Thompson noted that his convict character in the sketches, Lorenzo McIntosh, drew laughs from audiences “once we landed on him explaining things through ’80s movies.”
Kenan Thompson and Eddie Murphy in a ‘Scared Straight’ sketch at ‘SNL50’
Credit: Saturday Night Live/YouTube
The Rundown featured an SNL clip in which Thompson’s inmate tells students, including guest Paul Rudd, a tale of what happened when he discovered he was part werewolf, and found himself “howling and dunking” and becoming “the most popular kid in school.”
Former cast member Andy Samberg, who played another student, argued that the inmate’s words were the story of Teen Wolf.
“It was so joyful,” Thompson said. “It was just like, ‘Well, this is why they hired you. That’s the brilliant mind that they want to extract from.’ Thank God for writers.”
The sketch debuted on the NBC show on May 10, 2008, on an episode hosted by Shia LaBeouf. It was performed eight times between then and 2012, featuring celebrities including Betty White, Lindsay Lohan, and Paul Rudd.
It was such a hit that it was performed on SNL50, the show’s 50th anniversary special, in February 2025. Former SNL-ers Will Ferrell and Eddie Murphy joined Thompson as convicts.
Thompson joined the beloved Lorne Michaels show in 2003. He’s since become the longest-tenured cast member.
As for Jost, he began writing for Saturday Night Live in 2005. In 2014, he became the co-anchor of the news segment “Weekend Update,” where he continues to sit alongside Michael Che.
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