Leslie Jones is reflecting on her five years on “Saturday Night Live” and speaking out about feeling typecast as the “angry Black woman” during her tenure. Sadly, her experience is part of a much bigger Hollywood problem when it comes to how Black women have historically been portrayed in TV and film.
For decades, the entertainment industry has relied on a stereotype that reduces Black women to their perceived anger for laughs, all while ignoring the full range of who they are. In a recent interview on “The Sam Sanders Show,” Jones explained that she was made to play into that same trope while working on the longstanding, late-night sketch comedy show.
“It was kind of frustrating that they would always make me the girl that was angry and beating up people or in love with a white boy. They just always would make me angry, or I’m fighting somebody,” Jones said.
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She went on to say that the show essentially made comedians turn into “characters of themselves” and that she initially didn’t notice the pattern of roles and sketches she was cast in until they continued to be in the same vein.
“I wanted to be on the show and, at the time, I didn’t think that was what was happening ‘til it kept happening. And then I was like, every time I would get a sketch, I was like, ‘OK, who am I beating up this week?’” Jones said.
Later, when she was asked if she felt the show was a good place for Black comedians, she described “SNL” as “the machine that it is.”
But let’s get real for a minute. Jones isn’t the only Black woman comedian to leave the show. Remember Ego Nwodim, the beloved cast member who shocked fans when she parted ways with “SNL” in September 2025? And what about Punkie Johnson, Sasheer Zamata, and Maya Rudolph (though she still pops by now and then)? If you really look at it, only eight Black women have ever been official cast members throughout the show’s 50-year run, and none of them have really achieved a massive level of success.
If we were to take an educated guess about why that is, it’s likely due to the limited viewpoint the writers had when it came to the characters that those Black women comics could play. We know that the longstanding “Angry Black woman/Sapphire” trope is one of the most pervasive stereotypes plaguing representations of Black women in TV and film. And sadly, no matter how progressive a show may appear to be, and no matter how many times Black entertainers have demonstrated that they can embody a wide variety of characters and emotions, some Hollywood habits just die hard.
Hopefully, Jones’ admission will be the necessary catalyst for Hollywood to reexamine the ways they allow Black women comedians and actresses to show up for audiences. We know these stereotypes and tropes have been used to justify abuse of Black women and further dehumanize them, but in the year of our Lord, 2026, there’s got to be at least some room for expansion.
