Jay Pharoah is a master impersonator. The Saturday Night Live player has imitated everyone from Jay Z to President Barack Obama, and during last week’s MTV Video Music Awards, Pharoah tackled Kanye West. Pharoah’s jokes included ones about West “creating television” and how his video “cured ALS.” Pharoah also took a shot at West’s music video “Bound 2,” which featured Kim Kardashian.
Unfortunately, West wasn’t laughing, probably because he was being made fun of in front of his wife. During West’s recent performance at the Made in America tour, West once again took time out of his set to rant. This time he ranted about Pharoah.
“We work extremely hard on our craft and what we do with this music … They wanna make a joke about how hard we work,” stated Kanye. “It’s fine and all funny, but don’t distract from our mission. It’s not a joke what we do up here. This music that we do is not a joke. What we do culturally is not a joke.”
West then admitted to the concertgoers that he spoke to Pharaoh directly about the VMA bit.
“I called Jay Pharoah right after the MTV awards. I said, ‘I appreciate your show, but let me tell you about my story. Let me tell you about what I went through to get to that position,’” revealed West. “I ain’t making it a ‘black or white’ thing right now, but I’m telling you, if you see a black guy anywhere, he had to work 12 times as hard. So we ain’t gonna have no black comedians going onstage spoofing the people that’s working hard to open doors not only for black people but any creatives.”
Oh, Lord, will someone give West a sense of humor to go along with the sourpuss that’s permanently etched into his demeanor? It seems as though West takes himself a little too seriously if he actually thinks that he’s above being made fun of.
Pharoah has yet to make any comments about his call with West. But I’m sure it’s given him some more comedic fodder.