NEW YORK—Golden Age porn legend Johnnie Keyes got a hilarious shout-out during the "Weekend Update" segment of this week's Saturday Night Live.
As part of a commentary on lesser-known black pioneers who should be given their own U.S. postage stamps in commemoration of Black History Month, "Weekend Update" co-anchor Michael Che posited that Keyes deserved the honor for having been "the first black man in interracial porno."
Whether or not Keyes actually holds that distinction may be questionable at best, but he most certainly can be credited with appearing in one of the most famous interracial scenes ever shot, opposite Marilyn Chambers in Behind the Green Door. And regardless of that scene's place in the chronology of IR porn, Che's following zinger undeniably crackles: "Could you imagine what Johnnie Keyes had to go through in those days? I mean, Jackie Robinson got death threats and he was just playing baseball with white people. Johnnie Keyes should be on every stamp!"
Rather coincidentally, Keyes offers some unforgettable commentary of his own in Plausible Films' new documentary X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time (premiering this Friday on Showtime) about his above-mentioned scene with Chambers, reminiscing that he got a momentary scare he'd killed her with his penis.
AVN spoke with Keyes about the SNL mention, and as it turns out, Che's speculations about what the star faced post-Green Door may not have been that far off the mark.
"I got death threats, I had to take security, I got death threats from the Ku Klux Klan, I got death threats from all kinds of people who were upset about watching me fuck Marilyn Chambers," Keyes said.
He went on to explain that he learned about his moment of SNL glory when the saxophone player in his Seattle-based jazz ensemble "called me and said, 'Johnnie, you were on Saturday Night Live!' I thought he was bullshitting me, and then the next day my mailman knocked on my door and he said, 'Johnnie Keyes, you were on Saturday Night Live,' and then I'm getting all these calls and I'm like, 'What?' So then I go and look at it, I go, 'What the hell?' It made me very happy."
The full bit can be viewed here.
Screen cap: Michael Che's SNL skit from NBC.com.
