Bowen Yang Breaks Silence on SNL Exit and Responds to Criticism About His “Limited Range”

Bowen Yang opened up about leaving “Saturday Night Live” and addressed criticism he faced about his range on the show during this week’s episode of his podcast, “Las Culturistas,” which he co-hosts with comedian Matt Rogers.

Reflecting on his time at SNL, Yang said he felt fortunate to leave on his own terms. “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. I have this very beautiful thing where I get to say that I stayed on exactly as long as I wanted to,” he said.

He added that he had hesitated about returning in the summer before his final season but was glad he did.

Yang also responded to recurring online criticism that he lacked versatility in his performances. “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,” he explained.

When Rogers called that a lazy insult, Yang agreed, adding, “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 said his identity as a gay Asian man often shaped how audiences and writers perceived him. “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 said, noting that he was SNL’s first Asian cast member.

He continued, “I think range is a myth and it’s all about palatability, whether you’re getting taxed on it or you are subsidized.”

Yang’s exit from SNL was announced on December 19, 2025, one day before his final episode. That episode, hosted by his “Wicked” co-star Ariana Grande, featured Yang in several sketches, including a parody of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” with Grande during her opening monologue.

He also played a version of Kieran Culkin’s character from “Home Alone,” Yoko Ono in a holiday promo sketch, and a dedicated dance student in a scene with Grande and fellow cast member Marcello Hernández.

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