There’s trouble at “Saturday Night Live.”
Star player Bowen Yang has wiped most of his Instagram including any reference to the show.
Yang is angry about Nikki Haley’s appearance this week and the recent end credits cameo by comic Dave Chappelle.
This morning Yang posted a picture of a Champagne bottle and note that was left for Haley, a welcome from Lorne Michaels. The photo showed a bouquet of flowers and rows of expensive bottled water along with a card that read, “Amb. Haley ― Welcome to Studio 8H! From Lorne + Everyone at SNL.” Yang captioned the picture “Everyone :)” to make a point then quickly removed the whole thing.
Yang’s distress over these political incidents on the show is not surprising. Both Haley and Chappelle are the antithesis of things he would stand for, and now he’s made his feelings known.
Just to catch up: Haley appeared in the show’s cold opening in a parody of her town hall answer about slavery not causing the Civil War. Chappelle, who’s anti-trans, turned up at the end of a recent episode. Yang could could be seen showing his disapproval on camera. ( Last night, bizarrely, Chappelle actually won a Grammy award for best comedy album.)
This is compounded by the coming appearance as host by Shane Gillis, who was fired from “SNL” before the 2019 season for making racist comments in a podcast. Now Gillis is being welcomed back.
Will this be a tempest in a teapot? Or is more to come? Yang has risen quickly through the ranks at “SNL” and has done enough outside work that he could possibly leave and have a career. But exiting “SNL” is dicey even for the biggest stars. Kenan Thompson has stayed for decades, had a sitcom that failed, and stuck around. Even big recent stars like Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong have not blasted off in the solo world.
So stay tuned…literally…
