Kenan Thompson is opening up about his experience breaking his elbow just days before then-presidential candidate Donald Trump hosted Saturday Night Live in 2015.
The 47-year-old actor and comedian, who has been a cast member on the sketch comedy show since 2003, explained that he sustained the injury after crashing into an individual on the street while riding his bike back to work one day.
“I did [cycling] through the streets and I actually hit somebody and broke my arm years ago,” Thompson said on a recent episode of the IMO With Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson podcast. “I had a lunch that was a few blocks away from the studio… this was not too long, this was when the Orange Man hosted last, I think.”
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The Orange Man, of course, being a nod to Donald Trump and his signature deep tan. The Republican politician has hosted SNL twice over the years, first in 2004 and again in 2015 ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
“The lunch was, like, nine blocks, four or five avenues [away],” Thompson explained. “So I’m just, like, riding down in between traffic and parked cars or whatever and, of course, this guy just came flapping up out of nowhere and then I hit him with one of the handlebars.”
He continued, “I didn’t crash and flip over, necessarily — but I hit him enough to make me fall down.”
While Thompson’s arm certainly hurt after the collision, he noted that he could still move it around, so he brushed himself off and continued his trip back to the office.
“It was a little numb, but as the blood started [flowing], that pain started setting in, and, like, 15ish, 20 minutes later,” he said. “I was at my desk. So I made it to work, but then I started not being able to move my arm.”
It was then that Thompson understood that he’d broken his elbow — and that it would definitely impact his performance on the show. “And we’ve got a show to do!” he noted. “It’s a Tuesday!”
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Not wanting his broken elbow to affect any of the show’s sketches, Thompson told the Washington Post in 2019 that he went to an urgent care clinic, slept sitting up, and got his arm secured in a cast before Wednesday’s table read.
“The writers, they work so hard, they spend all night, and then the only thing people would be mentioning would be like, ‘Did you see Kenan’s broken arm?’ That’s whack,” he told the outlet at the time. “You never know how long they’ve been incubating an idea that they got on the show that week.”
And, when Trump hosted the show later that week, Thompson said that he propped his arm on his waist so as to not draw any attention to his injury.
“Even just the smallest distraction throws off the potential of the experience of the joke,” he said. “You kind of don’t have permission to not be perfect.”
Thompson was featured in three sketches that evening and, despite his best intentions, his large cast was still visible underneath his long-sleeved shirts. He appeared in a “Live Tweets” sketch, which saw Trump reacting to the sketch in real time on social media, as well as a “Rock Band” segment that featured a laser-harp-playing Trump complaining about not getting a longer solo.
He also made an appearance as Frederick Nathaniel “Toots” Hibbert, who performed when Trump first hosted the show in 2004, and chatted with Trump in between musical guest Sia’s performances.
Listen to Thompson talk about his injury on the podcast above.
