Jay Pharoah to Take Over Obama Impression from Fred Armisen on SNL

About 3 hours ago, we reported that Jason Sudeikis will be returning to SNL through the election season, which presumably was largely due to wanting to keep consistency in the presidential election impressions and not have someone else step in to play Mitt Romney after Jason Sudeikis has become so identified with the part.  And while it seems that Romney will still be played by Jason Sudeikis this season, it was just reported that despite still being on the show, Fred Armisen will NOT reprise his trademark impression of President Barack Obama, as the part will now be played by Jay Pharoah.  

While it is rare for political impressions to change cast members while the original cast member is on the show, it is not unheard of.  In fact, after Will Forte took over the impression of President George W. Bush from departed cast member Will Ferrell, Jason Sudeikis did Bush a few times while Forte was still on the show.  While it is certainly unexpected that Fred Armisen will no longer be playing Obama, it does make some sense. Many have criticized the quality of Armisen's impression, and Fred himself even admitted in a recent interview about how his Obama impression has evolved that he's "tried to do it more as [himself]"  (in other words, his Obama talks more like Fred Armisen than the real Obama). Many have also pointed out that Armisen is not actually black (he is of Venezuelan, German, and Japanese decent) so some even considered it racist that Armisen was essentially going under black face to do the impression, especially with black cast member Jay Pharoah sitting in the sidelines. 

Here's a clip of Jay Pharoah doing his Obama impression at a comedy club, before getting cast on SNL:

And in case you've forgotten, here's Fred Armisen's Obama impression:

And in other SNL political impression news, it seems that Taran Killam will have the honor of playing Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan.  This is also a bit surprising, as in my opinion Paul Ryan more closely resembles Bill Hader, but Taran certainly does do great impressions, and I suppose that if Bill Hader played Paul Ryan, then he couldn't play Shephard Smith as the VP Debate moderator, and that would just be a shame.

One thing's for sure, Lorne certainly seems to giving the younger cast members more prominent roles this season.  Should be a very interesting year!  SNL's 38th season premier is this Saturday night in just 3 days!  

Stephen Colbert Finally Mentions Jimmy Fallon, Sort Of

Last week, we speculated that Stephen Colbert might appear on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon while Jimmy was interviewing President Obama at the University of North Carolina.  The two had been best friends for six months, and then eternal enemies for six months, all which ended on the much hyped date of March 3.  Surprisingly, nothing happened on that date, nor any date since then.  Neither talk show host even mentioned the other during the past almost 2 months, that was until this past Thursday's Colbert Report, when Colbert discussed the backlash President Obama faced for appearing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  But aside from jokingly referring to Late Night as "The Jimmy Fallon Giggle Time News Hour", there were really no references to the two being enemies, friends, or anything at all.  He treated Obama's appearance on Jimmy's show the same as if he had appeared on Letterman or Leno.  Did the two decide that the ongoing bit about them being friends/enemies had run its course and it was time to just forget about it?  Or are they planning some big bit to air some time in the future? (Remember, it wasn't until a few weeks after their best friendship for six months ended that they "realized" that the six months had expired and that they were no longer best friends.)  Only time will tell.

In the meantime, here's the clip of Stephen Colbert talking about President Obama's appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

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Clip of the Day: Obama Slow Jams the News with Jimmy Fallon

Last night, we speculated that Stephen Colbert might crash Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with Barack Obama.  Well, that didn't happened.  But while there was no Colbert, there was plenty of Obama (as well as a good amount of Dave Matthews).  Obama talked to Jimmy about politics, college, television, and even answered some Twitter questions.  But the most memorable part of his appearance would have to be when the "POTUS with the Mostest" slow jammed the news with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots.  Check it out:

President Obama Calls Out Aziz Ansari

At a recent press conference, President Obama addressed many important issues facing our country, most notably, Aziz Ansari's lack of twitter followers.  He also informed the world that his daughter Malia is a big Parks & Recreation fan.  Check it out: