It looks like the people at Saturday Night Live figured out their pesky Barack-Obama-impersonation problem, surely to the chagrin of the only black guy in the cast, Kenan Thompson.

The new season of Saturday Night Live premiered last night, and, perhaps in an effort to cover up the show’s issues with cast diversity, producers made it a “black night” of sorts, with Kanye West as the musical guest and wannabe comedian LeBron James as a host.

See Kanye West’s refreshing willingness to make fun of the more obnoxious aspects of his personality in the above clip. And just think, if Maya Rudolph hadn’t decided to sign for another season, they would have had a Terrence with no Rocsi! Blasphemous!

After the jump, check out a Kanye performance and the obligatory Michael Vick skit.

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Kenan Thompson has pledged to lose about weight to play a marginally effective Barack Obama in Saturday Night Live’s political parodies, but unfortunately, he won’t be accompanied by an equally mismatched actress to play Michelle Obama. That’s right, Maya Rudolph, who usually bears the burden of playing every multicultural woman on SNL, won’t be returning for another season.

Alert the makeup staff — it’s time to break out the shoe polish.

UPDATE: These SNL jokesters. You can never take them seriousy.

[Jossip]

Way back in May, I told you about Saturday Night Live’s Barack Obama conundrum, which is that the only black cast member available to play Barack Obama in political parodies is the portly Kenan Thompson.

The only logical solution that Kenan could come up with was to lose 60 lbs, because, according to him, “It’s going to be a real political year and I’d hate for the show to have to seek somebody out to play Obama when they have me sitting there.” Well, if general health isn’t enough motivation, Barack Obama clearly is. Move over Dr. Ian.

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The white politicians are easy. Just take a Saturday Night Live cast member, slap a wig and any necessary facial hair on him or her, have them cultivate a barely-adequate accent and viola! You have a ready-made political parody of the sort that SNL’s (shrinking) audience thrives on.

And then there’s Barack Obama. His presence on the political stage creates a problem when the show, which has featured many a famous black cast member* in its storied past, only has one black guy left. And this black guy, Kenan Thompson, is more physically suited to play Fat Albert than Obama, if you catch my drift. I wouldn’t expect this to cause Lorne Michaels to rush and hire some black comedians, because we all know that there are such slim pickings in that arena. I’m surprised they were even able to find Kenan, what with the dearth of black people practicing comedy these days! And even a past-its-prime sketch show knows that blackface is a no-no. There’s only one solution. Maya Rudolph better get fitted for a sensible suit and prepare her drag voice.

[Jossip]
*Two are embroiled in paternity scandals and one is stuck in a SCRAM bracelet. But they’re still famous!