Aug 13
Watch: Bowen Yang Pulls Back the Curtain on Wild Behind-the-Scenes 'SNL' Goings On
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Out "Saturday Night Live" cast member Bowen Yang spilled some tea about what goes on behind the scenes at the long-running sketch comedy program, including a "terrible" experience with a guest host, Variety reported.
The revelations were part of Yang and fellow guest – and Yang's co-host on the podcast "Las Culturistas" – Matt Rogers answering questions lobbed at them by host Andy Cohen on Cohen's talk show "Watch What Happens Live." The segment, titled "Truth or Kink," featured a pair of vibrating jockey shorts that buzzed Rogers if a question went unanswered, as happened when Cohen declined to "name one Real Housewife you never want to see or hear from again."
On the next question, Yang was asked, "Without naming names, what is the worst SNL host behavior you have witnessed?"
Yang responded that there was a male host who "made multiple cast members cry on Wednesday... during the table read" for the show's broadcast the following Saturday night "because he hated the ideas."
"That's terrible," Cohen said.
"Terrible!" Yang agreed.
Rogers was asked a "Marry Shag Kill" question with the options being Brooks Ayers, John Janssen, and Slade Smiley, the latter of whom famously dated not one, but two "Real Housewives" cast members.
"I'm done with narcisists, so we're gonna kill John Janssen," Rogers said, before abruptly reversing course: "Oh, no, we're gonna kill Brooks! We're going to, I guess, shag John Janssen because narcissists are really good at sex. And I guess we'll marry Slade, because he must be really good because he's gotten so many of them."
The game's final question went to Yang, who was asked to name his "least favorite Ariana Grande song" – to which Yang cried, "I'm pressing the button" to give a jolt to Rogers, rather than giving a reply.
"Yang was also asked during the interview about his biggest bomb when it comes to 'SNL' sketches," Variety detailed, "and he remembered one sketch that was planned for host Ayo Edebiri during the last season."
Yang recalled, "We wrote a live sketch where it took place in an elevator, and she and I were, like, telling everyone that we should all make out or something because the elevator got stuck."
But the envisioned live sketch morphed into a videotaped segment that was created before the show's broadcast. That, Yang suggested, made the idea less successful than it otherwise might have been.
Yang explained that the bit "got turned into a pre-tape under our noses, and we had to adapt to that," before summarizing: "It just didn't go as well as I had hoped."
Watch a clip from the show below.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.