Jay Pharoah just completed his first season as the other black guy on SNL, which began with a ton of promise when he did a masterful Denzel Washington in an Unstoppable parody that was one of the best bits of the entire season.
In classic SNL fashion Pharoah went on to go criminally underused the rest of the season. Who knows the reason. Maybe it was the rookie learning curve. I do know the reason wasn’t the dude’s impersonation skills. I’m convinced he’d take home gold in ever black celebrity impression contest ever held (unfortunately I don’t think these are held).
Case in point, the following two videos of Pharoah doing impersonations of Will Smith, Jay-Z, Chris Tucker, Eddie Murphy, DMX, etc, etc, in a random kitchen for a random audience started trending yesterday and they’re simply tremendous. They were clearly filmed before he was cast on SNL and were posted on the YouTube channel of self-labeled philanthropist/artist/actor Champain Era (the dude in the red hat giggling and thinking about potential YouTube views). The audio is NSFW but totally worth testing just how NSFW-sensitive your workplace is.
Pharoah Does Will Smith, DMX, Eddie Murphy, and Chris Tucker
NSFW audio
Pharoah Does Obama, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Cassidy, and Kat Williams
NSFW audio
SNL Unstoppable Parody
SNL Fresh Prince Parody