There’s a Lot of Doubt Circulating About the New ‘SNL’ Cast Members

Back in the day, Lorne Michaels and company would find future cast members of Saturday Night Live performing at Upright Citizens Brigade and Second City. These days, it’s less clear how the casting process occurs, though many suspect social media is playing a much larger role. All five of the new cast members have an established presence on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, at varying levels of popularity. Veronika Slowikowska has a million followers on Instagram, while Tommy Brennan regularly has crowd work from his stand-up sets go viral. Kam Patterson is part of the larger Kill Tony network, with his videos amassing thousands and thousands of views. To some extent, the same goes for Ben Marshall and Jeremy Culhane. 

But with so much material online, there’s less mystery about the comedy chops of the new cast prior to the October start of Season 51. And not everyone is impressed by the videos they’re seeing. Slowikowska has picked up a lot of questioning on X, where people have expressed doubt that her sketch videos will translate well over to SNL. 

This doubt isn’t just sexism targeted at the only woman to join the cast. (Though it might be sexism that Michaels decided to only hire one woman. But who can really say, maybe it was really hard to find more than one funny woman.) People have been expressing similar doubts about the four dudes starting this fall as well. Really, it’s a general sentiment of distrust that the cast is actually funny. 

“People keep quoting the SNL cast member announcements with the least funny TikToks I’ve ever laid eyes on,” one person wrote. But there was also specific criticism of very popular videos from Culhane as well. 

It’s fair to say that comedy is subjective, and for as many outspoken haters of the new cast, there are just as many people who have expressed enthusiasm and deep adoration for them. People really love Culhane’s TikTok video about going to a baseball game, and there’s a million positive comments on Slowiskowa’s sketches. 

But the saturation of their work online means that SNL fans are also getting time to form opinions on the comedy before the new cast ever gets to showcase how their abilities will work in the context of Studio 8H. For every Slowikowska hater, there’s another person convinced she’ll be the next Kristen Wiig. And the truth is, there’s just no way to know whether or not they will succeed on the show until we get through the first few episodes — and even then, some previous cast members have taken a full season or two to fully bloom on the show.