The Man Who Should Be Playing Barack Obama on SNL

Posted by AudieGrl on December 08th, 2009

Crosson holding a newspaper headlining election victory for Barack Obama

Meet Iman Crosson. He’s an American actor, impressionist, dancer and singer known on various Internet websites under the pseudonym “Alphacat,” and is best known for his impersonations of U.S. President Barack Obama. Over 30 million people have viewed his videos…

During the summer of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election campaign, Crosson came to our attention after winning Denny’s Restaurant’s nationwide contest for the best impressionist of the then-candidate Barack Obama. Obama’s election victory brought recognition for Crosson’s comedy-, vocal-, musical-, and dance-laden video characterizations of a President during national crisis.

Within months of the election, Crosson was featured on numerous cultural, entertainment, and news television shows. While also being featured on blogs, newspapers and magazines. He earned a personal invitation to perform at Aretha Franklin’s March 2009 birthday celebration and landed a commercial with Sony. Crosson has engagements at corporate events, parts in national commercials, and voice-over parts on Newsweek.com’s The District and on two prime time television shows in production.

Iman Crosson

In my interview with Crosson, I asked if he had heard from SNL yet. He replied, “no one has contacted me…. I’d never expect them to. They’re SNL, I doubt they’re worried about internet talent. At least I don’t think…” Although Crosson is being very modest, his youtube fans don’t agree.

The online fans that follow his Alphacat channel are very anxious to see Crosson on SNL. But Crosson explains the difficulty, “I’m not sure if there’s anything to do to get Loren Michael’s attention. I think most of the sketch comedy shows are pretty tightly knit unless you complete a certain set of requirements or fit them at least, you simply aren’t looked at.”

Finally I asked if President Obama had seen his impression, to which he replied, “I’m not sure, but I like to imagine he has! That would be great.”

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama
When DailyIntel asked Crosson his secret to mastering the president-elect? He replied, “It’s all in the speech patterns and vocal cadences, and a whole lot of uhhs. I’ve learned to lower my register a little bit. He’s very pensive. He puts a lot of thought in what he’s about to say. Sometimes, he’ll highlight a word in a sentence. He might reiterate a word under his breath.”

Says Crosson: “One thing that has been important to me is to make it funny without making it profane or obscene. My ultimate hope is that Obama will see it one day and laugh.”

Atlantic blogger Ta-nehisi Coates weighs in in favor of Crosson too, writing that “you don’t have to be black to do a good impersonation of a black dude. I like Darrell Hammond’s Jesse Jackson a lot more than Keenan Thompson’s Al Sharpton–but you do have to be good. Andrew nominated this cat (Iman Crosson) awhile back.”

Film.com‘s take: “It was one thing to have Armisen portraying Obama when he was a mere candidate, but now that SNL knows that it will need someone to play the 44th president for another four seasons at least, it’s hard to imagine that the show will let this obvious problem area go unaddressed. Armisen is a pro and you can tell he worked at his much-criticized portrayal in the last offseason. He has even gotten some laughs out of his mimicry of Obama’s deliberate speaking patterns. But since anyone who has visited YouTube in the past two years knows that good Obama impersonators aren’t hard to find, why can’t Lorne Michaels see fit to hire one“

This video is a spoof of the Jamie Foxx hit song “Blame It on the Alcohol”. It includes portrayals of President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Ex-Governor Rod Blogojevich, and Ex-Governor/Blogger Sarah Palin.

Here’s the Obama Does Thriller video from Halloween. It was created as a parody of the ‘scuffle‘ situation between President Barack Obama and Fox News.

Meet Alphacat, the Man Who Proved Obama Can Be Made Funny

Better Than Fred Armisen

Is it Time for SNL to Hire a New Obama Impersonator?

Iman Crosson for Prez… on SNL: Bloggers Ask Should he be Fred Armisen’s Replacement?

Lynda Obst: On Armisen’s Obama Impression

Categories: Barack Obama, Entertainment, Films, Michelle Obama, Music, TV

Tags: alpha, Armisen, AudieGrl, BARACK, Be, crosson, fred, Halloween, iman, impression, impressonist, kat, live, loren, michaels, NIGHT, Obama, playing, president, Saturday, should, SNL, youtube

Shanti2

Alphacat is ALL THAT!

SNL needs to bring on the DIVERSITY period.
Audiegrl

Alphacat is such a talented young man. Its a shame every time I look up and see Armisen playing President Obama. My problem with him is not that he is a white man playing Obama, because as Ta-nehisi Coates says, Darrell Hammond’s Jesse Jackson is on point. Eddie Murphy's impressions as an older white gentlemen in Coming to America was hilarious. But Armisen doesn't do Obama very well at all (even the President isn't impressed), so that just makes his performance like listening to nails going down a chalkboard. The thought of watching him muddle through his impression of Obama for the next three to seven years is depressing to say the least. When I watch Armisen, I can't tell if the audience is laughing with him, or at his cringe-worthy attempts to do Obama.

Loren just needs to hire an actual Obama impersonator for the next 3-7 years, a person who would not be a regular each week, but would only appear during Obama skits. Just like when Tina Fey comes by, whenever they do a Sarah Palin interview. Or like Queen Latifa played Gwen Ifil last year. There are plenty of other characters for Armisen, so it would be no skin off his nose. And don't get me started on poor Keenan Thompson...
JojoRaze

Audiegrl, you're on the money for me. It's not his race, it's the impersonation. When did they ask PBO if he liked, or didn't, the impersonation? They should stick to one person who is skilled at PBO impersonation and give him something else to do. But I think the Armisen as Obama thing is some sort of contractual obligation that Arminsen perhaps wanted as a condition of staying on the show as you mentioned...I remember him threatening to leave.

I just don't understand how they can have a good Sarah Palin impersonator, a good Hillary impersonator and have a wack Obama impersonator. Amy Poehler's impersonation of Hillary was so full-bodied in the last skit when she was sizing up Sarah Palin when she said "Anybody, Anybody ANYBODY!! can become President--it summed up perfectly what Hillary must have felt about Sarah Palin b/c after that she went to bat for Barack fully because she seemed so offended that SP could claim her mantel without the work. I could feel Hillary after the Couric interview thinking, "Oh, hell naw. That fool ain't getting near the nuclear codes if I have breathe in my body."

Keenan is usually horrible but I think it's the material he's given 99% of the time. His Tiger Woods was actually very good. His facial mannerisms--he actually looked handsome doing the Tiger impersonation--, cadence and delivery was on-point even if he looked nothing like Tiger.
Audiegrl

I missed the Tiger impersonation, after watching the opening Obama clip, I
just changed the channel. LOL The President was asked about Armisen's
impression before November, and he said something like, 'its ok'. Guess he
was being nice about it. LOL ;-)

Thank you! Glad to know someone else remember's Armisen threatening to
quit. That deal, whatever it was, probably mean we will have to suffer
through 7 more years of his ham-fisted impersonation. Sigh...
rikyrah

he really should. I've seen all those videos, and he is on spot. He cracks me up. I can't begin to tell you how offensive it is to me for them to be having a WHITE MAN play Obama on SNL.
JojoRaze

Fred Armisen is mixed-race but not the right mix per se. He's of Venezuelan (that can mean a mix of black, white and Native American), German and Japanese descent. I think the problem is not the race aspect, it's just that he isn't funny as Obama even though he's refined his cadence and mannerisms. His Obama is so boring and esoteric--which Obama can be--but he doesn't display at anytime the charisma or joie de vivre that made Obama famous. Alphacat combines O's esoteric side with the charismatic side as well. I mean O is the type of guy that can talk about Riehold Niebuhr and Blazing Saddles--he recently honored Mel Brooks and Grace Bumbry. I think the outrage is that there's better, more black-er people out there like Alphacat that get the nuances of Barack Obama and Lorne Michaels is settling for Fred Armisen. Darrell Hammond did a great Al Sharpton by most accounts.

But what makes this complicated is that the one black man Armisen does well is NY's Gov. Patterson. I saw that skit and as offensive as it was he had Gov. Patterson down COLD--he actually looked like Gov. Patterson's brother.
Audiegrl

I seem to remember sometime last year, before the election in November, it was rumored that Fred Armisen was leaving SNL. Then poof! It was gone. I wonder if he threatened to leave, and Loren M. had to promise him the Obama impersonation? Just sayin...
Sepia

*dead* @ the "Thriller" spoof!

Alphacat is freaking HILLARIOUS! He should definitely play PBO on SNL, because Fred Armisen just isn't funny. At all. And Vernetta Jenkins should play Michelle. She looks exactly like her!

This has also exposed the lack of diversity at SNL. The other week, they did a skit about PBO's trip to Asia and they had white comics portraying the Chinese leader and his Chinese translator. WTF? You're in New York City ofr crissake! You need to have more than one person of color!
JojoRaze

This has also exposed the lack of diversity at SNL. The other week, they did a skit about PBO's trip to Asia and they had white comics portraying the Chinese leader and his Chinese translator. WTF? You're in New York City ofr crissake! You need to have more than one person of color!

Tell it, Sepia!! Lorne Michaels has something against black people and minorities in general b/c he can only seem to have one minority on the show at any given time, unless it is performers. Tokenism has been played out since 1989. I've heard Maya Rudolph, who criticized her use as Michelle Obama on the show, hint at the tokenism on the show; and Tracy Morgan talks about it in his new memoir, as well--some excerpts were in People Magazine.. He basically said the only person who was cool and supported his growth on the show was Tina Fey--she always loved him and stuck by him even when he was pretty wild. It's NYC. If Lorne Michaels wanted genuine, minority talent, all he would have to do is do a casting call and he'd be overrun with submissions and the hype would enhance the ratings, as well. The only consistently funny white person on SNL was Darrell Hammond, Tina Fey, Kirsten Wiig and Andy Samburg. The first three are no longer on the show and Samburg is it.
JojoRaze

Alphacat is the bomb!! i remember a comment on YouTube about AlphaCat that said, "Armisen is inadequate; Get thee to 30 Rockefeller now!" and I felt the same way. I don't like the "Fox News is Thriller" one; it's only funny in the first 90 seconds where Michelle imagines PBO as how Fox News sees him, but the one's where he portrays Obama behind the scenes on the debates are hi-larious, especially when he talks about Sarah Palin. Lorne Michaels should be ashamed of himself that Alphacat could find people that looked liked FLOTUS and POTUS and all he can do is get wack Armisen. What does Lorne Michaels have against black people? Alphacat has the look, cadence and mannerisms of Obama down.
MsKitty

but the one's where he portrays Obama behind the scenes on the debates are hi-larious, especially when he talks about Sarah Palin.

"She named her kid Trig? What's his middle name...Onometry?" LMAO
Sepia

I've never seen that one> Can ya'll post it?
MsKitty

I think this is the clip.
JojoRaze

Yes!!! that's the one. Oh gosh, I laughed so hard off of that b/c you could total see PBO saying something like that...and laughing at his own joke.

Funny thing is, I don't think SP knows what trigonometry is much less to spell it.
MsKitty

I loves me some Alphacat. Thanks for reposting the "Thriller" video, I missed it the first time around.