Saturday Night Live's Kenan Thompson has been on the show for over two decades - sooner or later, it's got to come to an end! And this is exactly why Kenan Thompson has joined Old Navy's internship. Well, not really. But this hilarious new web series created by Observatory shows what that reality could look like, if Kenan ever found himself booted out of the SNL doors.
With six episodes available to watch on YouTube right now, the series takes the comedian out of his comfort zone, making him the odd one out on an internship course designed for children. Alongside his fellow 'Lil Interns', Kenan partakes in a variety of training exercises in the different departments of Old Navy, from finance to design, marketing and retail. Packed with unruly charm from the youngsters and some slices of wit from Kenan's desperate attempts to prove himself as smarter than a 10-year-old, or indeed, to get any of his generation alpha colleagues to recognise who he is, the episodes are a fun watch and a quick three to six minutes apiece.
From jokes about peer reviews, the drudgery of life as an intern ("when are we getting paid?") and other relatable office-life moments, the Observatory team and Caviar director Jason Woliner have successfully harnessed the elements that have made the workplace mockumentary such an iconic and enduring sitcom premise throughout the last 20 years. With cutaways to interviews with the Lil Interns, Kenan and other Old Navy staff members, there are little quips and moments of brutal innocent honesty from the children that would make Michael Scott and - for us Brits - David Brent blush. Well, if they had any self awareness.
Adding an extra level of authenticity and some surprising laughs to the show is the involvement of genuine executives and staff members from Old Navy HQ. Taking the lead in some of the episodes are CFO and strategy lead, Hayden Tollas, head of kids and baby design, Karli Kane, senior creative director, Jeanine Celeste Pang and more. Each of the department leads bring a different focus to each episode, presenting opportunities for jokes and giggles from Kenan and his equally immature co-workers. Whilst the experts are trying to explain to the class of interns complex financial acronyms or how they funnel the concept of 'existentialism' into a design for a tank top... no, seriously... the SNL cast member acts as the fall guy for many of the jokes and generally has a great time being upstaged by his 'Lil' friends.
You can check out all of the episodes on the Old Navy YouTube channel and the 'Lil Interns' website here.