'SNL' alum Tim Meadows corrects Kenan Thompson's ‘Harvard guy’ comment

Yes, Tim Meadows is aware that he's mentioned in Kenan Thompson 's new memoir — and he'd like to make a correction.

"I saw some snippets of Kenan's book and he was talking about the African American people on the show," Meadows told fellow Saturday Night Live star Ego Nwodim on a recent episode of her Thanks Dad podcast. "He said that I was like a Harvard guy who was like, cerebral and quiet and stuff."

Flattering as that description may be, Meadows didn't think it was entirely accurate. "I didn't go to Harvard, first of all," he said.

Nwodim quipped, "'First of all, I went to Yale,'" she joked as Meadows. "No, where did you go?"

Laughing, Meadows clarified, "I went to Wayne State University in Detroit."

He continued, "But also, my family, I grew up in the city. I had a very typical upbringing. I grew up in Detroit with separated parents, and my father — I would see my father out drinking in the streets of Detroit. So that's the kind of man my Dad was: He was a hard working dude, but he drank."

Meadows went on to reflect on the revelation, which came in his teenage years, that his father had a secret second family. This led Meadows to meet his half-brother, a doctor, which helped him realize how far he could go in life.

"It was really eye-opening to meet those people because it changed my perception of what I could do," he shared. "I was like, 'If I have a brother that's a doctor, has a doctorate's degree, I'm from the same genes. I can achieve something.'"

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Though Meadows and Thompson didn't cross paths during their respective tenures on SNL (Meadows departed in 2000, and Thompson joined in 2003), the veteran comedian was still mentioned in Thompson's 2023 book, When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories & Questionable Parenting Advice From a Professional Clown .

A section of the memoir sees Thompson address the unique relationships that he observed and experienced between Black performers on SNL, including how he received guidance from such figures as Tracy Morgan .

"Is there solidarity amongst all the Black cast members? Absolutely. Everybody acknowledges the struggle of being the token in a traditionally white institution like Saturday Night Live," Thompson wrote. But he added that given everyone's unique personality, each relationship was different than the last.

"Do some people have different relationships with others? Are some kind of standoffish? Sure, we're all human beings with varying personalities," he continued. "Tim Meadows and Tracy Morgan are polar opposites and come from different worlds. Tim is one of the cerebral Harvard guys, and Tracy's off-the-hook Brooklyn. You have to get to know Chris Rock to understand that his grumpiness doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't like you; he's just a grumpy kind of guy."

Meadows enjoyed a famously-long stint as an SNL cast member, appearing for 10 seasons from 1991-2000. One of his recurring characters — sex therapy expert Leon Phelps — even got his own feature film, the Meadows-penned comedy,The Ladies Man. Meadows' long tenure on the show was later surpassed by Fred Armisen, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, Seth Meyers, Darrell Hammond, and of course, the reigning champ and longest-running cast member ever, Thompson.