Bowen Yang Doesn’t Exactly Deny Rumors That He’s Leaving ‘SNL’
While early speculation about a teary-faced Bowen Yang holding onto Sarah Sherman for dear life. Were those the sobs of a comedian saying goodbye?
Yang won’t confirm or deny, explaining his emotions without really explaining anything. “I think you get to a point at SNL where you understand that you’re on the downswing of things,” Yang told Entertainment Weekly, at least hinting that the end is coming if not already here. “I think I was just processing that being one of the last ‘last nights’ that I would have, and that is a huge thing.”
Then again, as Yang says, all those tears might be the product of reaching the finish line after a long season. “Every finale at goodnights, something leaves my body because I’m just relieved from all that happened in that season, and this was a big one,” he said. “We went through a lot, so many fun memories. I think that was probably what was ing. I was just like, oh, I need to savor these moments before I don’t have them anymore.”
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Quit dancing around the big question, Bowen! When the six-year SNL veteran was asked point-blank whether or not he was leaving the show, he refused to answer. “No,” he laughed, “we’re not doing that.”
By not answering, though, wasn’t Yang giving an answer? If he is definitely returning for a seventh season, why not just say so? Not even Michael Che, who has turned quiet-quitting SNL into a side hustle, is making those kinds of nondenial denials.
Yang has been dropping “I’m outta here” bread crumbs for weeks. “Especially after the 50th, I’m seeing what life after the show is like and how beautiful it is,” he told People last month. “SNL (is) this growing, living thing where new people come in and you do have to sort of make way for them and to grow and to keep elevating themselves. And that inevitably requires me to sort of hang it up at some point.”
Yang fans are reading the writing on the SNL dressing-room walls.
As his movie career kicks into a higher gear, Yang departing 30 Rock for good probably makes sense. And because questions about his future keep generating headlines, so does playing coy.
