Quinta Brunson Made A Fair Point About Friends In Her SNL Monologue

Yet another star got to make their Saturday Night Live dreams come true at last. Quinta Brunson hosted the late-night sketch comedy series for the first time on April 1, and she made sure the SNL audience knew who she was. The Abbott Elementary star and creator gave a brief explanation of her award-winning sitcom using a pop culture reference virtually everyone could understand: Friends.

“I have a show called Abbott Elementary,” Brunson said. “And it’s kind of unique. … It’s a network sitcom, like say, Friends, except instead of being about a group of friends, it’s about a group of teachers. And instead of New York, it’s in Philadelphia, and instead of not having Black people, it does.”

Her joke poked fun at one of the common (and fair) criticisms of the iconic sitcom that ran from 1994 to 2004. Friends — while excellent and timeless in many ways — is very much a product of its era, a time when representation and racial equity weren’t prioritized in the way that they are now. Co-creator Marta Kauffman addressed the lack of diversity on Friends during a 2020 virtual panel and acknowledged that the sitcom fell short in that area. “I would have made very different decisions,” she said, per Deadline. “We’ve always encouraged people of diversity in our company, but I didn’t do enough. Now all I can think about is what can I do, what can I do differently.”

Brunson’s monologue also had a cameo of sorts from none other than former President Barack Obama (also known as “my friend Barack,” she joked). He appeared in a selfie video message to her mom, a real-life teacher, that they’d previously shot. It celebrated Brunson and her mom’s work and that of teachers in general. Teaching is the “most important job there is,” Obama noted.

Building on that message from the SNL stage, Brunson compared teachers to dishwashers as a way to comically illustrate how they’re taken for granted. Finally, she transitioned to a sincere request to viewers. “Please remember how important teachers are, acknowledge the work they do every day, and for the love of God, pay them the money they deserve,” she said.

The rest of Brunson’s SNL episode was just as memorable. In various sketches, she appeared as a forgotten doctor, an irritated driver, and a recovering bridesmaid, among other characters. Her fans made their appreciation known on Twitter both during and after the episode. One person, who said they “don’t watch SNL anymore,” noted that they “had to watch Quinta’s episode.” They seemed pleased by their choice, adding in another tweet, “We are simply watching the beginning of the world’s realization that Quinta is the comedic GOAT of this era.”