Beloved comedian and former Saturday Night Live (SNL) star Bowen Yang has opened up about his abrupt departure from the sketch show and addressed criticisms claiming he had “no range”.
After seven years on the iconic sketch series, Yang shook the entertainment world to its core after announcing his departure in the middle of season 51.
Almost a month after kissing SNL goodbye, Yang has dished on his “abrupt” exit, admitting he was “so glad” to come back for the 51st season before officially calling it quits.
“This is honestly what’s behind it: It’s time. You would do seven seasons, and then you would scoot,” Yang said on Las Culturistas in the episode titled “Exit Interview (The Cathartic Episode)”.
“COVID and the current media landscape, 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,” the comedian continued.
“I have this very beautiful thing where I get to say that I stayed on exactly as long as I wanted to.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Yang addressed criticism surrounding his talents, adding that he felt ” bogged down” by some of the claims that were made.
“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 before saying he understood where the criticisms came from.
“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 confirmed his exit from SNL via an Instagram post shared on December 21 2025, where he shared a series of photos from his time working on the show.
“I loved working at SNL, and most of all, I loved the people. I was there at a time when many things in the world started to seem futile, but working at 30 Rock taught me the value in showing up anyway when people make it worthwhile,” Yang wrote.
“I learned about myself (bad with wigs). I learned about others (generous, vulnerable, hot),” he continued.
“I learned that human error can be nothing but correct. I learned that comedy is mostly logistics and that it will usually fail until it doesn’t.”
It’s also worth acknowledging that Yang is responsible for a variety of SNL‘s most iconic moments, including his rendition of the viral pygmy hippo Moo Deng and his Charli xcx impersonation.
Although it is sad news that he’s officially gone, I’m super keen to see what’s next for this lovable comedian.
The post Bowen Yang Reflects On His Abrupt Departure From Saturday Night Live: ‘It’s Time’ appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
