Bowen Yang is first East Asian SNL fulltime cast member

He is also openly gay, making him only the third out gay male cast member in the show’s history (with Terry Sweeney and John Milhiser). He joins fellow out LGBTQ cast member Kate McKinnon.

Sum Ting Wong!

Velly velly good!

I knew it wouldn't take like for the anti-Asian shit to start. It's why I never bothered to post this news here. But keep on calling everyone else racist, R2.

I hope he loves the show long time!

He was great as Kim Jong-un last year. I remember one user on here senselessly complaining about his appearance. Anyway, I'm happy for him! He's a funny dude. Whether they'll give him something worthwhile to do is another question all together.

How progressive.

I hope he doesn't just get Asian stereotypes to play on the show, but since SNL hasn't been funny in ages, I have my doubts.

He co-wrote the Actress sketch for Emma Stone, where she plays the wife in gay porn. They also had Ty Mitchell in it.

I've seen a few clips on YouTube. Can he only play gay characters?

Hmmm. What famous Asians will they have him impersonate? . . . I can't think of anyone.

[quote]He joins fellow out LGBTQ cast member Kate McKinnon.

Kate McKinnon isn't just a lesbian, she's also gay, bisexual, transgender AND queer? Wow, that sounds exhausting!

I like his glasses.

fat and ugly...next!

What a bad photo. He looks evil.

Wow, only 45 years!

He's not the first SNL cast member of East Asian ancestry: Fred Armisen is a quarter Korean. But he is the first SNL cast member of all or mostly East Asian ancestry.

Okay

ruh roh. sumting wong.

This shit always happens. He and his bro come off super unlikeable in the video though.

Also, usually when comedians are called out, it's from something they randomly tweeted like 8 years ago. This dude said all this shit just last year.

On the air for 45 years and they're just now getting an Asian cast member? This is more evidence for why MadTV was better.

Better racial representation in the cast and jokes that managed to be funny and non-PC.

He’s Asian? He must know a lot of doctors.

R23 He was indeed a premed at NYU.

About time that Jewish privileged boys club become a little more diverse.

Lorne will “ask” Yang to defend this racist guy and everyone will forget about it

I was wondering if Yang would somehow be used as a pawn in this situation. He shouldn't be.

Bowen Yang...related to Andrew Yang?

R22 Exactly.And Mad TV diversified before the age of the internet, so it wasn't about getting pressure from twitter. Mad TV hired non white actors because they wanted to, not to get a pat on the head. That being said, good for Yang. I'll be interested to see how he does.

Fuck! Some of you trully are racist immature brats. Why are you like this? Seriously. Get some therapy. Anyway- congrats to Bowen. I hope he's given some worthwhile material.

It's about time but a little too late. And just one guy?

As earlier said, MadTv diversified just because it could I don't know if it's because it was made in LA but still. ... its like Lorne Michaels and NYC live in a glorified white bubble---(hello, Friends, Girls and Seinfeld)

The racist has issued a response to being called out for being a racist:

“I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries....I’m happy to apologize to anyone who is truly offended....I’m trying not to hurt anyone but I want to be a good comedian and that requires risks.”

Yikes. There’s no way he will keep his new SNL job with that awful “apology.”

[quote]He's not the first SNL cast member of East Asian ancestry: Fred Armisen is a quarter Korean. But he is the first SNL cast member of all or mostly East Asian ancestry.

Rob Schneider is also a quarter Asian- he’s Filipino.

OP he's cute.

[quote] And just one guy?

Honey, what were you expecting... that the entire current cast be replaced by the cast of Fresh Off the Boat? Be realistic.

Jenny Slate was fired for swearing once.

However, this new guy they hired has another problem.

(Or rather this other new guy, not Bowen.)

It all raises the question: Did Saturday Night Live vet its new cast members? It’s 2019, so at this point, there’s really no excuse for this kind of slip-up. (Representatives for the show did not respond to a request for comment.) And while Gillis clearly put some effort into scraping his history from the internet beforehand, there’s an entire subreddit dedicated to his podcast that’s filled with homophobic slurs, even against current SNL writers, and it’s very easy to find on Google. Beyond that, sources in the Philadelphia comedy scene — where Gillis lived and performed from 2014 through last year — tell Vulture they were surprised to see the SNL casting news today given Gillis’s material. “Good Good Comedy Theatre stopped working with him within the past few years because of racist, homophobic, and sexist things he’s said on and offstage,” said Kate Banford, co-owner of the comedy theater.

On Vulture, "SNL Hires Racist Homophobe" is story #1 and "SNL Hires Gay Asian" is story #2.

Yang's standup isn't especially funny.

I hope they don't only have Yang in sketches where they make a reference to him being Asian.

bump to hopefully stop people from starting new threads on this topic

Rob Schneider was 1/4 Filipino.

But it’s SNL, one of the worst shows in the world. This isn’t some prize. MADtv had many Asian cast members and that was two decades ago.

And "In Living Color" had an Asian cast member in the mid-90s.

[quote]MADtv had many Asian cast members and that was two decades ago.

I love MADtv, but let's not pretend they had anyone other than Bobby Lee on the show. That being said, they were definitely ahead of the curve when it came to the racial makeup of their cast compared to SNL.

GQ calls SNL’s hire of this person a “shitshow”

Shane Gillis will probably be a one season featured player.

Lorne is probably preparing for Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Aidy Bryant to leave the show after this coming season and that's probably he hired Chloe Fineman. If Fineman gets a good amount of screen time Kate McKinnon's fans will bitch up a storm on L Chat. Her fangirls get pissy any time other cast members get more screen time that Kate does.

When is the new show?

That’s what I was thinking, R38.

One of the interns should introduce Lorne Michaels to this new “social media” thing.

R48, I'm not sure but I think the season premiere is two weeks from tonight.

Frankly, I'm surprised NBC has not ordered Lorne to ditch this guy. Once social media calls someone out like this, that's usually the point where they get the boot.

NBC will let this die down like they did with Melissa Villasenor's twitter scandal. In the year leading up to Villasenor's hiring, NBC was getting slammed about not having Hispanic cast members and when Trump hosted. When it was revealed that Villasenor had a couple of tweets trashing Mexicans, plenty of people ignored that part.

Melissa V is a Hispanic woman. Seth Racist is a Caucasian man. He's toast.

If you don't know why NBC would want to protect one and not the other, you haven't been paying attention to much of anything for the last few decades.

NYT:

[quote] Seth Racist is a Caucasian man. He's toast.

Who?

Who cares about the racism of it all. I want gossip on Bowen Yang and his comedy partner Matt Rogers, who is a cutie. Who has slept with them?

“Shane” is one of those idiot names, like “Jared” and “Brett.” They are the children of C student boomer & Gen X.parents.

Never met one who wasn’t an asshole.

I saw this guy’s podcast and it was this mouthy, snotty entitled little guy whose voice & attitude were like a 1990s David Spade Hollywood Minute making snotty remarks about women, Asians, etc and this guy Shane sitting across from him going, “Yeah, yeah. Chinee. Chinee noodures......yeah, yeah, white girls. Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

I don’t know who the snotty twerp was but he seemed to be in charge and this Shane Gillis person seemed to be his follower (who had an itchy neck).

Well I watched a couple of his stand up routine and he IS the walking stereotype of a flamboyant gay man so I doubt he'll be anything but. He's a more annoying version of that cute black dude Jaboukie whatever.

Will we ever get a gay comedian who's not a stereotype?

I'm just glad Alex and that hot little ass of his will be back this season.

Jaboukie can be versatile. Sometimes he’s fem, sometimes he’s urban street dude

Leslie Jones has zero ability to be anyone other than Leslie Jones on SNL so maybe Yang can succeed with only the ability to play flamboyant gaysian.

That Shane guy got canned.

He made tasteless Asian jokes, when SNL's first Asian cast member is about to debut.

He should have been canned even sooner than he was.

Nothing Gillis or that little bitch ass guy who was with him in the podcast was remotely funny. He “pushed boundaries” for nothing.