Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell reunited on screen in 2023 for Good Burger 2 (available now with a Paramount+ subscription), a sequel to the original film from 1997, which itself was based on the Nickelodeon sketch show All That. The SNL star and the Dancing with the Stars 28 runner up were an iconic duo for '90s kids, but the two weren't always on the best of terms. Now, almost two decades after the end of their Kenan & Kel sitcom, Thompson has opened up about their falling out.
While Kel Mitchell shared back in 2022 that he and Kenan Thompson would "talk all the time," that wasn't always the case. Thompson was a guest on TODAY to promote his new book, called When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories & Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown, and he addressed the period when he and his former Nickelodeon screen partner weren't speaking:
It was more of a separation that kind of grew into the traditional terms of what a falling out is, which is not a lot of communication. Originally it was just us kind of looking for our own individualism basically as adults and kind of just taking a breather from being a duo, because we both came into the game as individuals. We were placed together because we worked so well together on All That. It was just the journeys of being adults and then time passes and more time passes and it just became ridiculous. We didn't even know. We don't even remember what it was. I apologized, he apologized, whatever it was.
The passage of time and some development as individuals was all that it took for Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell to rekindle their friendship, to the point that they no longer remembered what had come between them in the first place. For the SNL star, it just "became ridiculous" at a certain point, and he made the overture to reconnect with Mitchell. Thompson continued:
I called him, we played phone tag for like a day or something like that... When you have a real friendship, it was five minutes into the phone call we were back. It was like, what were we waiting on all this time? You just never really know until you actually have that talk.
As a fan of the duo back in their Nickelodeon days, I'm glad to learn that their friendship was strong enough to come right back even after years of not being close. They shared the screen for quite some time, as working on All That turned into Kenan & Kel, which ran on the network from four seasons between 1996 and early 2001. The original Good Burger released in 1997.
Thompson would go on to audition for and join the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2003, and by 2023 he is at the top of the list of Saturday Night Live cast members on the show the longest. He also starred in the sitcom Kenan for two seasons on NBC, even earning an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead actor in 2021, although the show was cancelled in 2022.
As for Mitchell, he also tried out for SNL, but did not win a role in the cast after an audition that he described as "a little too crazy." He's also far from the only talented comedian who tried out for SNL and were rejected. In a fun twist, well before Good Burger 2 released, Kel Mitchell appeared in an episode of SNL about a Kenan & Kelly reboot of the original sitcom, with Keke Palmer hosting.
Check out Kenan Thompson's full interview about his falling out with Mitchell and more below:
You can find Good Burger 2 streaming on Paramount+ now as the two friends' most recently collaboration, along with the original Good Burger from 1997. If you still want more of the pair, you can find Nickelodeon's All That and Kenan & Kel streaming on the platform as well. For some upcoming viewing options, check out our 2024 TV schedule.
