"Saturday Night Live" getting new "Obama": Jay Pharoah

Jay Pharoah at "Men In Black 3" New York Premiere after-party at USS Intrepid in May / Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

NEW YORK (AP) — "Saturday Night Live" has elected a new Barack Obama: Jay Pharoah will take over the plum role of impersonating the president.

"SNL" creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels announced the casting switch in an interview with The New York Times posted Wednesday. Michaels said it was time "to shake it up."

Veteran cast member Fred Armisen has played Mr. Obama since 2008.

Pharoah joined the show in 2010, and has since stood out for his impressions of Denzel Washington, Eddie Murphy and Will Smith.

Michaels also said Jason Sudeikis will remain with the show at least until January, and will continue to play Mr. Obama's Republican opponent, Mitt Romney.

The 38th season of "SNL" premieres Saturday with host Seth MacFarlane, creator of "Family Guy," and musical guest Frank Ocean.

[macintrance]

Fred Armisen did a great Obama. Jay Pharoah is an outstanding impersonator. I'm looking forward to see his Obama. More importantly, I wonder what are they going to do about the Digital Shorts now that Andy Sandberg is gone from SNL.

[ChrisBaron123]

I thought that Pharoah's Obama was really good last night, and he did a lot of things better than Armisen. Pharoah had the President's cool attitude and patterns of speech down much better than Armisen ever did. I was talking to a coworker about the switch, and she was against it because she is such a big fan of Fred. I really like his comedy, but his awkward style did not work well in his Obama impression. I am really worried about the fate of the digital shorts also. I have nearly every one from the last season saved on my Hopper's huge disk drive. I love showing them to my friends when they come over, and they have been some of my favorite bits on the show in the past years.

[dinaelaughsalot]

Who knew? that Saturday Night Live was still on the air? Since Dana Carvey's "Church Lady," they've over cooked each character to the point of stupidity. (all Will Ferrell skits, Molly Shannon, Kristen Whig, Ladies man.) They find something funny and then drive it into the ground. The musical guests became boring many years ago. Always trying to shoot for an audience that is out driving drunk instead of the people watching the show.