Kenan and Kel hunt for classic games and find their childhoods
Overview & Key Takeaways
The SNL, All That, and Good Burger stars head to New York City to talk childhood nostalgia and video games on Polygon's Shelf Quest.
If we’re lucky, you and I are still talking to our best buds from childhood, riding memories of monkey bars and awkward middle school firsts into adulthood. That makes Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell among the luckiest. Where so many young actors flame out in a tailspin of childhood fame, not only did “Kenan and Kel” both survive All That stardom in the mid-1990s, they went on to be functional adults with colorful careers. And they’re still friends.
If there’s a secret to why Thompson and Mitchell remain such a magnetic duo three decades after All That and their sitcom Kenan & Kel, it’s that they still interact like two friends killing time at the mall. This week’s Shelf Quest sends them loose through New York’s famed videogamesnewyork, and within minutes they’re arguing over Power Gloves, reminiscing about Dance Dance Revolution, and trying to remember every Sega Genesis game they ever loved. While they weren’t pals before All That — Mitchell recalls mowing lawns in Chicago to save up for his own Genesis before spending hours with OutRun and Altered Beast — the rigor of performing sketch comedy at the age of 16 was enough to bond them for life. Together, in 2026, they can both marvel at the eye-watering prices attached to the collectibles they wish they'd never thrown away.
In our new interview, Thompson feels the weight of time in aisles lined with retro games. Many of the characters the pair grew up with (Mario, Sonic, Metroid) have survived long enough to become shared experiences with a new generation.
"Pixelation to HD is a wild journey, man," Thompson says. "And there's some really good, fun games with good mental challenges, just puzzles and stuff like that. That's what Mario seemed like. They were all kind of like puzzles that you had to keep playing and playing until you figured out the timing."
“Timing” seems like everything for Thompson, whose comic wit has made him a stalwart on Saturday Night Live after 23 seasons, and Mitchell, who never stopped popping up on Nickelodeon for sitcom stints and slid right back into his Ed voice for the 2023 Good Burger sequel movie. Now the two even have a game of their own, the match 3 puzzle game Orange Pop!, which besides being a perfect time-killer hopefully will hone the minds of the next comic generation.
But for now, allow us to indulge in a little nostalgia and hit the shelves with Thompson and Mitchell.
