Bowen Yang discussed his decision to leave “Saturday Night Live” and his final appearance on the show during this week’s episode of “Las Culturistas,” the podcast he hosts with his friend and fellow comedian Matt Rogers.
Speaking on his colleagues at the late night sketch show, he said, “The current entertainment ecosystem is so turbulent that people have completely valid reasons for staying longer, or in a lot of cases, don’t have the privilege of staying on as long as they would like to. I have this very beautiful thing where I get to say that I stayed on exactly as long as I wanted to.”
“I was maybe unsure about going back in the summer, and I’m so glad I did,” Yang continued, referencing his unorrthodox decision to leave halfway through Season 51.
He also took a moment to respond to a critique he regularly saw online throughout his tenure at “SNL.”
“I feel like I was really bogged down the entire time I was there about the idea that there was no range in anything I did,” Yang said. When Rogers said that was a lazy insult, Yang said he understood it: “I knew I was never gonna play the dad. I was never gonna play the generic thing in sketches. It’s a sketch show; Each thing is like four minutes long. It is short and collapsed by necessity, so therefore it plays on archetypes.”
He continued: “These archetypes are also in a relationship with generic things, and there is a genericism in whiteness and in being a canvas to build upon. I came in pre-stretched, pre-dyed. People had their over-determinations on what I was, which was: ‘Oh, that’s just the gay Asian guy on “SNL.”‘ So anytime I would try to work outside of that, it got completely ignored or it still got collapsed to, ‘Oh, he’s being gay and Asian as always.’” (Yang was the first-ever Asian cast member of “SNL.”)
Rogers remarked, “You did so many things. I don’t think people necessarily know they’re being homophobic when they say that,” and Yang concurred: “I think range is a myth and it’s all about palatability, whether you’re getting taxed on it or you are subsidized.”
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“Do they knock Pete Davidson for range?” Rogers said. Or does he get to get away with it because it’s cool and within a male gaze?”
The surprising news of Yang’s departure from “SNL” broke on Dec. 19, just one day before his final episode on the show.
Yang’s final episode was hosted by his “Wicked” co-star Ariana Grande. The two shared the stage during her opening monologue to sing a musical parody of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Throughout the rest of the Christmas-themed episode, Yang appeared in sketches alongside Grande and his cast mates. He played a version of Kieran Culkin’s character from “Home Alone,” Yoko Ono in a holiday album promotion and a committed dance student in a class taught by Grande and “SNL” co-star Marcello Hernández.
During Weekend Update, former cast member Aidy Bryant made a surprise return to the show to join Yang as their fan-favorite duo, the Trend Forecasters, one last time.
The show concluded with a sketch of Yang playing a bartender at the JFK Delta Lounge. He serves eggnog to the travelers while reflecting on his final day on the job. Other cast members come and go through the scene before Grande and musical guest Cher join Yang, embracing in a final farewell while concluding a rendition of Charles Brown’s “Please Come Home For Christmas.” The tears in Yang’s eyes appeared genuine.
Yang joined “SNL” as a writer in 2018 for Season 44 and became a featured cast member in Season 45. He was promoted to the main cast at the start of Season 47. Throughout his tenure, he has been nominated for the supporting comedy actor Emmy four times.
From Variety US