Are Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell Still Friends? Here's the Status of Their Relationship

The 74th annual Primetime Emmy Awards are airing on September 12, and sketch comedy lovers are thrilled to see longtime Saturday Night Live star Kenan Thompson hosting the ceremony. The comedian may be in the spotlight for the 2022 Emmys, but this isn't his first time going to the award show. During his two decade-long career on SNL, he has earned six nominations and taken home a win in 2018.

While fans are aware Kenan joined the hit NBC series back in 2003, he's actually been in comedy a lot longer than that. He first gained attention in 1994, when he was an original cast member of the Nickelodeon sketch show All That. During his five-year tenure, the Kenan star debuted a number of characters, from the pea-obsessed lunch Lady Miss Piddlin to a teenage superhero whose sensitive nature led him to mess up, well, everything.

But there was one sketch that truly put him on the map, thanks to the help of a fellow cast member: "Good Burger," starring his friend Kel Mitchell. Nearly three decades later, folks are wondering, are Kenan and Kel still friends?

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Fans may remember Kel playing a cashier at a fast food joint, who always found a way to create chaos for customers walking in for a simple sandwich. Kenan's role was a construction worker who only wanted a milkshake with his burger. Their dynamic was so electric onscreen that executives at Nickelodeon realized they could do more with the duo's combined talents.

"They put us in every sketch together, because Kenan and I would always hang out after a sketch, after a show," Kel told Yahoo! Entertainment in April. "We were just hanging out, joking around and doing pranks, all kinds of stuff, on set."

As the two continued working on All That, Nickelodeon invested in a new TV show starring the two actors titled Kenan & Kel. The series followed a set of friends who got into misadventures. The show became so popular that multiple celebrities made guest appearances, including a young Britney Spears.

They also took their popular "Good Burger" sketch and made it into a 1997 film. Eventually, Kenan and Kel decided to set their sights on bigger things, and the duo left All That in 1999. Shortly after, their self-titled series got canceled and they began drifting apart.

In 2003, both Kenan and Kel separately went up for an audition to be in the cast of SNL. While Kenan eventually became part of the comedy troupe, it was not the same case for Kel. According to Kel, his audition not only didn't impress then-lead writer Tina Fey, but it was downright disastrous.

"I think it's hilarious now thinking about it, but doing standup and being good at it now, I realize what I did was not good," Kel said during a Reddit Ask Me Anything session. "Basically I did this joke about DMX — if DMX was in Toy Story. It was so bad, it was good, to me. And I remember Tina Fey was there, and I remember afterwards she was like 'Good job!' but I think it was a little too crazy for SNL."

While rumors swirled about their friendship going sour, Kenan and Kel seem to have kept in touch over the years. They not only brought back their famous "Good Burger" sketch for The Tonight Show in 2015, but they even appeared together on episodes of the All That reboot in 2019.

So, are Kenan and Kel still friends? According to Kel, the two still talk — but it's not all about work opportunities. Since they both have kids, they prefer to catch up about fatherhood instead.

"Kenan and I talk all the time," Kel told Paper Magazine in November 2018. "We're dads now. We talk about our kids and all of that stuff."

To sum it up, Kenan and Kel are still Kenan and Kel — but without all the lights and cameras on them. Who knows, maybe we'll see them together once more at the 2022 Emmy Awards ...