Actor and comedian Kenan Thompson, during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers, discussed Kanye West's political speech at the end of last week's Saturday Night Live season premiere where West was the musical guest.
Thompson referred to West's decision to deliver a speech supportive of President Donald Trump.
"I wanna cry right now. Black man in America, you're supposed to keep what you feel inside right now," West said that night. "And the liberals bully you and tell you what you can and cannot wear, where you and they can't not stare. And they look at me and say, 'It's not fair. How the hell did you get here?' Well…"
Audience members booed as West put on his MAGA hat.
"Actually, blacks weren't always Democrats," he started. "It's like a plan they did to take the fathers out the homes and promote welfare. Does anybody know about that? That's the Democratic plan."
Saying people can't be controlled by "monolithic thought," West pivoted to talking about comedian Bill Cosby, who last week received a prison sentence related to charges of sexual assault. "You can't always have when you have a black subject matter like Cosby that you have to have a black comedian talk about it," he said.
"It's so many times that I talk to a white person about this, and they say, 'How could you support Trump? He's racist.' Well if I was concerned about racism, I would have moved out of America a long time ago. We don't just make our decisions off of racism. I'ma break it down to you right now: If someone inspires me and I connect with them, I don't have to believe in all they policies."
Thompson, who was not on stage at the time, told Meyers:
I did my part in the monologue and then got to watch the circus unfold.
He went on to add:
We're all entitled to our opinion. I don't know if that's the moment, necessarily, to hold people hostage like that, but hey. I felt so bad for those guys because it's hard to stand there and not be able to debate somebody who goes so far against your personal opinion and just stand there and take it.
When musical guests come in and they're a little bit crazy, maybe they're a little bit crazy, we let 'em have that. We don't judge. We're not there to judge.
People were divided. Some agreed with West.
Other felt West shouldn't be invited back.
It's not the first time West has gone "off script." Anyone remember this?
Thompson, who is the longest running cast member on SNL, won his first Emmy this year for the song "Come Back Barack" and was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor.
H/T: Huffington Post, AOL, Rolling Stone
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