Quinta Brunson Criticizes ‘Friends’ for Lack of Diversity in ‘SNL’ Monologue


Quinta Brunson made her Saturday Night Live hosting debut this past weekend, and she absolutely killed it with her hilarious riff on Friends.

During her opening monologue, Brunson talked about how being on SNL was her “dream come true” moment. The 33-year-old Emmy winner then talked about her “unique” TV show, Abbott Elementary, which she compared to Friends.

Brunson talked about her show’s success and said it’s about a group of teachers at a mostly Black school in Philadelphia that doesn’t get enough money.

“Back in the day, I wanted to be on SNL, but the audition process seemed long, so I made my own TV show, made sure it was really popular, won a bunch of Emmys, and then got asked to host,” she joked, adding, “So much easier, so much easier.”

Bunson then talked about Abbott Elementary by saying, “It’s a network sitcom like Friends. Except that it’s about a group of teachers instead of a group of friends. It’s in Philadelphia instead of New York, and there are Black people there instead of none.”

In recent years, Friends has been criticized for only giving non-white actors very small roles.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, co-creator Marta Kauffman talked about the criticism. She said, “It took me a long time to start to understand how I internalized systemic racism.”