Saturday Night Live finally has enough Black cast members to put together a hilarious The Wiz Live! sketch.
On the Ryan Gosling hosted December 5th episode, the scarecrow of West Oz (played hilariously by Gosling) gets lost and accidentally runs into the crew of East Oz, including Leslie Jones as The Wiz, Kenan Thompson as cowardly Lion, Michael Che as Scarecrow No. 1, Jay Pharoah as the Tin Man and Sasheer Zamata as Dorothy. There’s a hilarious bit in which Gosling’s scarecrow starts to dance and Thompson’s lion remarks “East Oz ain’t for you.” The West Oz scarecrow replies, “I didn’t think it would be, but now that I’m here it’s really great. There’s so much color!” As he gets yelled at by the East Oz crew he clarifies. “No, no. I just meant in the world. There’s a lot of heart and soul here. It’s much better than where I’m from.” Nice coverup, because I can’t deny him that. It’s true; The Wiz does have a lot more soul.
I must admit, I am impressed with SNL’s ability to pull this off so quickly. Especially given the Live! telecast aired that Thursday, it seemed the cast had great knowledge of the show. The set was awesome, the costumes were particularly impressive and the impressions, as usual, were spot on (Thompson’s Cowardly Lion had a lip quiver that was A+).
This got me to thinking, though: when is the last time a Broadway Black actor hosted SNL? According to my research it’s been a while; however, I’m holding out hope that one day Leslie Odom Jr. gets to do it. I mean remember his hilarious “Got Milk?” spoof? That’s got to be worth something right?
Check out the SNL clip below. They even end it with a Dab!
