Bowen Yang seems less than thrilled about what is going on at Saturday Night Live
Bowen Yang seemingly expressed his displeasure in that Nikki Haley cameo on Instagram
Aux News Saturday Night Live
Last week, Bowen Yang made headlines for appearing to distance himself from Dave Chappelle during the closing moments of Saturday Night Live. Chappelle wasn’t a guest on the show that night but had randomly hopped on the stage from the audience to join the goodnights. We don’t know for a fact that Yang’s displeasure was due to Chappelle’s presence, but video of Yang and Sarah Sherman looking upset and disturbed in the direction where Chappelle was standing led many to assume they were unhappy with the notoriously transphobic comedian’s surprise appearance.
This week, Yang’s feelings about Nikki Haley’s SNL appearance are a bit more clear. Presidential hopeful Haley took part in the show’s cold open in a sketch that sanitized the conservative politician and allowed her to walk back previous comments about the Civil War not being about slavery. Some fans expressed dismay that the Republican candidate (whose policies include being anti-abortion and anti-“critical race theory”) was invited to the show. Yang seems to be among that number: he posted a picture to his Instagram of a note in Haley’s dressing room, which read “Welcome to Studio 8H! From, Lorne + Everyone at SNL.” Yang captioned the photo, “everyone! :)” Though he didn’t come out and say it, the post, which had comments disabled, suggests some resentment to be included among the “everyone” welcoming Haley to the hallowed comedy series. (The A.V. Club has reached out to Yang for comment.)
This series of befuddling events is primed to get all the more upsetting when comic Shane Gillis hosts on February 24. Gillis was hired to be on the show at the same time as Yang and Chloe Fineman but was fired within days of the announcement due to racist and homophobic comments that the show deemed “offensive, hurtful and unacceptable” at the time. Since then, Gillis has managed to build a huge audience through stand-up tours and his popular podcast, and has claimed that the comments that got him fired from SNL were taken out of context.
Except Gillis has continued to make those kinds of comments in the years after being fired, perpetrating COVID skepticism, associating with alt-right figures, and making anti-trans remarks (“No way women wrote the fuckin’ Matrix… and then I googled it and it’s just dudes in wigs,” he said of the Wachowski sisters in a podcast episode in 2023). During an episode of his podcast last year, he entertained a lengthy discussion about Jewish people “controlling the media.” Also in 2023, he appeared as a guest on Sam Hyde and Nick Rochefort’s podcast, nodding and laughing along as one of the hosts appeared to make a rape joke about Kate McKinnon and the other questioned why Lorne Michaels has dual citizenship with the United States and Israel. (Writer Seth Simons compiles more examples of Gillis’ history of racism in his newsletter Humorism.)
Gillis has obviously continued to be offensive and hurtful, but apparently, this has become more acceptable to Saturday Night Live in the intervening years. It’s unfortunate for cast members like Yang, who don’t have any power over the guests who get booked for the show. It’s also unfortunate for fans of Saturday Night Live who are disappointed to see the long-running series embrace figures whose views are upsetting at best, and harmful at worst. But then again, what else is new?
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If it helps, Lorne’s an all-purpose starfucker, so it’s unlikely that this is strictly political.Seriously though, Lorne sucks.
The only star associated with Shane Gillis is his nasty starfish.
I mean yeah but also…it’s just a strange trend. Chappelle, Haley, Gillis… And all in an election year? And Michaels surely remembers the criticism SNL got for letting trump host, so at this point it’s hard to believe it’s anything other than intentional.
I could see it spun as “We felt bad for normalizing Trump, so we may as well give a boost to his primary opponent.” But that would assume that even Lorne thinks that SNL is politically relevant anymore (and I don’t think he’s swinging for anything more than “Milquetoast Flavor, now with Populism!”). If it were to be Lorne just going for a “yeah, fuck cancel culture” kinda thing…I’d wonder why? I’ve been saying it since the Dennis Perkins days: if SNL had any political bite or relevance, it was lost LONG ago. Just seems like a weird fight to pick.
“We felt bad for normalizing Trump, so we may as well give a boost to his primary opponent.” Not to sound mean but that would be a preposterous line of thinking. Like, it would make zero sense. If they felt bad for normalizing Trump they’d give a boost to his actual opponent, Biden, not just a different version of him.I don’t think it’s against cancel culture. My guess is that it’s an intentional support of right-wing talking points and policies. It is a weird fight to pick and that’s why I don’t know how else to interpret this series of unforced and un-asked for appearances other than it being an intentional political play. Whether or not he thinks SNL is politically relevant, Lorne is communicating something on purpose.Or Lorne just hates Bowen Yang and Punkie Johnson and Molly Kearney and is trying to get rid of them. Which also…why?
Not to sound mean but that would be a preposterous line of thinking. Yes. It would.
Do you think if Biden (or Harris) volunteered to host, SNL would say no?I think it’s a stretch to say there’s a deliberate effort here to support “right-wing talking points and policies.” Chappelle didn’t say anything at all last week. I don’t see anyone actually suggesting that Haley said anything objectionable on the actual show. I guess we have no idea that Gillis will say during his hosting duties, but count me as skeptical that he’ll do anything do boost rightwing talking points.
This Gillis person is not Biden or Harris. Literally his only cultural cache is with the right wing crowd. No one else has even heard of him. It’s his entire audience. “I think it’s a stretch to say there’s a deliberate effort here”You’re allowed to think that.“Chappelle didn’t say anything at all last week.”Exactly. He wasn’t in a sketch. He didn’t have a line. And yet there he was. For what purpose?“I guess we have no idea that Gillis will say during his hosting duties”And if that’s all that matters to you, then fine? No one said you have to give a shit about the rest of what he says when he’s not on the show, and no one says you have to give a shit about Haley being on there. If her appearance made the show better for you, then that’s great, I’m really happy for you. I really hope you enjoy Saturday’s show too.
I think one thing that’s happened is that our culture has fragmented, and it’s harder to say who counts as famous anymore. I’ve never heard of Gillis, for what it’s worth. He seems to host a very successful comedy podcast that I’ve never heard of. But it’s not clear, based on his resume, that he’s less famous that, say, John Mulaney. Is Mulaney more famous, or is he just more famous in the particular cultural group I’m in?Is Gillis less famous than Jacob Elordi? It’s not like the public as a whole has seen Saltburn or Priscilla. Or, again, am I just in the cultural group that knows what Saltburn is?
I didn’t make a claim about whether he does or doesn’t qualify as famous. I said his audience is people with right-wing beliefs. I don’t see the relevance of quantifying whether he’s more or less famous than John Mulaney or Jacob Elordi (the latter of which I hadn’t heard of before he hosted either).
uh, or it’s not all about him hating his cast members but a shade more complicated, like he’s running a dying 50 yr old show and trying to remain relevant and in the spotlight in any way possible.
But, also, sure, it’s easy to say Lorne just hates the gay folks, too, I suppose.
Only bald losers like you see this as a “fight to pick”.
Its not a great plan, his opponent is still an asshole republican, just slightly less crazy and stupid.
Maybe. I also think, however, that liberals have gotten more assertive about the idea that people should not appeal in these things if they have views liberals consider noxious.Conservative political figures appearing on SNL is nothing new. Steve Forbes, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain all hosted, and Sarah Palin appeared in 2008, when she was being skewered by Tina Fey. Charlton Heston hosted. If Haley’s views on abortion and trans issues exclude one from hosting NSL, they would surely have excluded all these people as well. When it comes to non-politicians, I think it’s fairly new to think that hosting SNL requires us to exhaustively go back through a person’s catalogue of interviews and past jokes, and confirm that everything they’ve said matches our sensibilities.Look, I broadly agree with Yang’s views on the world, certainly more so than Nikki Haley’s. But Haley is broadly representative of views about half the country hold on abortion and trans issues. If your view, or Yang’s is that these people should not appear on SNL, that’s excluding an awful lot of people. And I think that’s different from only saying that Trump should not have hosted, which I definitely agree with.
Maybe they would have, but this is now and this is the situation we’re in. No one’s asking them to go back in time and uninvite Sarah Palin. All I’m asking is what is with this series of far right appearances. It seems pointed.“I think it’s fairly new to think that hosting SNL requires us to exhaustively go back through a person’s catalogue of interviews and past jokes, and confirm that everything they’ve said matches our sensibilities.
How far back are you thinking people have to go in Nikki Haley’s history?“If your view, or Yang’s is that these people should not appear on SNL, that’s excluding an awful lot of people.”I want you to understand me clearly here: I truly do not give a shit.“And I think that’s different from only saying that Trump should not have hosted, which I definitely agree with.”Oh but why? Didn’t you know that Charlton Heston hosted that time?
Didn’t you know that Charlton Heston hosted that time? I remember that he forgot to thank the musical guest (Paul Westerberg).
Paul Westerberg knows what he did.
Doubtful, as he was shitfaced most of the 80’s and 90’s.
Maybe Chuck was upset about the time the Replacements got drunk on SNL.
Maybe he forgot–he was up in years at the time. lol
It would be great if we lived in a world where Haley, Chappelle, and Gillis were “far-right,” as you say. A lot more elections would go the way I want. But it’s just nonsense. Haley’s a very mainstream Republic, and Chappelle and Gillis don’t seem to be conservative at all, strictly speaking.
It’s not, but okay.
>>>>Haley’s a very mainstream Republic, and Chappelle and Gillis don’t seem to be conservative at all, strictly speaking.”A “mainstream Republican” wouldn’t be heading towards a thrashing in her own home state’s primary against the other guy, just because she’s not far right enough for them.Even Dukakis won his own state against Reagan in ‘84.And he got thrashed everywhere else.Or maybe she’s not as “mainstream” for where her party actually is nowadays on the political spectrum.
I have seen several bits from Gillis’ standup routine of him absolutely roasting Drumpf.
You don’t have to be Republican to be conservative, and not all Republicans wear goofy-ass red hats and have QAnon on their Bookmarks Taskbar.
It’s significantly less than half. They’re just really fucking loud and our system is gamed to give them more power.
A majority of Americans think trans athletes should only compete on the teams matching the gender they were assigned at birth. Pluralities believe that it should be illegal for medical professionals to help people under 18 gender transition, that trans individuals should be required to use the bathroom of their assigned gender, think schools should not teach about gender identify, and oppose efforts to make health insurance companies cover medical care for gender transitions.https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/09/15/how-americans-view-policy-proposals-on-transgender-and-gender-identity-issues-and-where-such-policies-exist/I wish that were not true. But I don’t think we can kid ourselves that the only reason trans issues have struggled to make headway is because the “system is gamed” against liberals. On many issues, supporters of trans rights have not convinced enough people they’re right to prevail.
Ok, but as another commenter pointed out 70% of the population is also pro-choice. You brought up both abortion and trans rights. And honestly…I don’t trust the American people to understand the nuances of trans rights any time soon. That doesn’t mean we should make those people feel comfortable and Yang realizes this.
As I note in a response comment, that 70 percent number only works if you consider people who believe first trimester abortions alone should be legal. When you look at abortions in the second trimester and beyond, it’s closer to 70 percent opposed. In any event, my point is there are a lot of people who believe these things.I don’t think your point about comfort helps you. It’s not Chappelle, Haley, or Gillis who are seeking an environment where they’re comfortable — they surely know SNL is a place where most people disagree with many of the things they have said. It’s Yang who seems to the frustrated that the SNL environment includes people who make him uncomfortable. And that’s fine — I think it’s good that Yang is speaking his mind. But that doesn’t change who is asking to be “comfortable.”
Why would I give a shit if Hayley, Chappelle or Gillis were comfortable? That’s not who I’m talking about. I’m talking about the supposedly conservative audience of SNL who you claim think all of this is fine.And hell, maybe it is! You seem ok with pretending it’s 2008 again, and this is all a matter of some gentlemanly disagreements, so sure why not.
I don’t think this is all a matter of some gentlemanly agreements. That’s all the more reason for Democrats and liberals to focus, rather than getting up in arms about the fact that a comedian told a joke about the Wachowskis. Because there are voters who voted for Trump, then voted for Biden, and might vote for either one again. And these voters are consistently turned off by the fact that Democrats and liberals often come off as joyless scolds.
“When you look at abortions in the second trimester and beyond, it’s closer to 70 percent opposed.”
Horseshit. Utter horseshit.
In every poll, over 70% of the country is pro-choice. Nikki Haley’s misogyny only appeals to incels and rednecks.
About 70 percent of the country thinks abortion should be legal in the first trimester. If you think that position, all by itself, qualifies one as being pro-choice, then OK. But support for legal abortion drops to 37% for the second trimester and 22% for the third. https://news.gallup.com/poll/321143/americans-stand-abortion.aspx#:~:text=When%20asked%20about%20the%20legality,and%2022%25%20for%20the%20third.The reality is, public opinion doesn’t map on that well to either side’s position. The majority of the public plainly does not believe that abortion is the equivalent of killing a person, but nor are they on board with the idea that the government has no role in a choice that resides only with the pregnant woman.
>>>>”About 70 percent of the country thinks abortion should be legal in the first trimester. If you think that position, all by itself, qualifies one as being pro-choice, then OK. But support for legal abortion drops to 37% for the second trimester and 22% for the third.”Nobody seeks abortions in the third trimester.That (along with seekign abortions in the 9th month) is just a stupid Right Wing demagoging point that has no basis in reality by which reasoning that last number is meaningless.And the only time abortions are actually conducted in the third trimester is…..Ding ding ding….
When the mother’s life is at risk and the medical professionals strongly recommend against carrying a live birth.
Guess which party is against EVEN that (per the state laws have been passed since Roe fell), and then guess which party Nikki Haley is part of?
You left out the Christo-fascists!
>>>”>>>>Look, I broadly agree with Yang’s views on the world, certainly more so than Nikki Haley’s. But Haley is broadly representative of views about half the country hold on abortion and trans issues.”This is patently wrong and false on several levels.Republican and conservatives and those that hold their views of which you seem to be referencing Haley, haven’t comprised “half the country” for almost half a century now in almost any metric you choose to use.Registered voters, Party identification,….etc.Even the views you reference specifically are not held by “half the country”Several polls have already showed that a majority of the country was against overturning Roe Vs. Wade and disagreed with the Supreme Court’s decision to do so(https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/07/06/majority-of-public-disapproves-of-supreme-courts-decision-to-overturn-roe-v-wade/#:~:text=The%20survey%20finds%20that%20adults,slightly%20more%20(52%25)%20disapprove.)….with a clear majority in that same Pew poll saying the abortion should be legal in most cases…..
(…..62% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, little changed since before the court’s decision)So where the hell do people like yourself get off in saying that Haley represents the views of “half the country”?Even if we broaden te lens a little you find that Republicans have won the popular vote in the presidential election just ONCE in the last 32 years.That’s over A QUARTER OF A CENTURY, and a literal lifetime or generation. And the only way Republicans have been able to win power is either through the antiquated Electoral College (The White House), or through extreme gerrymandering and extereme redistricting in their favor (for Congres, and state legislatures).Does that sound to you like a country that’s about “evenly dividided” and roughly half and half in their views?Haley doesn’t even represent the views of roughly “half” of her own party, because if she did she wouldn’t be struggling so much to beat, much less even challenge a 4-time indicted and twice-impeached character for her party’s nomination.
What do Chappelle and Gillis have to do with this being an election?Oh, and Haley was on BECAUSE it’s an election year.
Even after the Trump fiasco, he let Elon Musk host. So he learned nothing.
True, or he learned the wrong thing, which is there’s no such thing as bad publicity, I guess.
whats wrong with Gillis? you don’t like comedy? Theres been two good SNL episodes all year. Get someone funny in there
They had Trump host. Theyre assholes, (or maybe its just Lorne) they havent learned anything.
Apparently, he lives for name dropping, so the more names he can collect the better I guess…
Bill Hader is a treasure and must be protected at all costs.
Since when is Shane Gillis a “name,” though?
Yeah let’s not forget the unbearable, unwatchable episode hosted by Trump.
Yep.I mean, this isn’t unprecedented, across multiple media outlets, even though it’s annoying as shit. I remember the 2012 election, and Obama & McCain were fucking EVERYWHERE. The fuckers were on WWE Monday Night Raw, FFS. AND SNL. And various morning shows. It’s just…ugh.
The absolute nadir of that show. And you’re absolutely right, it was so uncomfortable to watch. It felt like Triumph of the Will being refitted as a sitcom. The cast has never looked more miserable.
You equate the elephant in the room awkwardness in that monologue to Triumph of the Will? Wow. Just wow.
(sends copy of The Many Uses of Comedic Exaggeration to full moto)
People who suck don’t typically have TV shows that run continuously for 50 years. And people who manage to keep a TV show running for 50 years often piss-off people around them who think they know better. And keeping a show on the air for 50 years when 45 of those years have given us shows with no more than 25% great humor and 75% face plants makes the accomplishment that much better. How many honestly welcome comedic careers have you personally launched, Lorne-sucks-er? How many years have you kept a TV show on the air in spite of whine-y pissants complaining about you for decades? I am absolutely CERTAIN that Lorne is a prickly SOB when he has to deal with whine-y pissants. And he has every right to be. I can’t really say I’m a big fan of Saturday Night Live or Lorne Michaels in particular… at least not often since the first 5 seasons or so. I still watch… hoping there’s at least one funny skit so I’m not watching just to see Colin Jost and Michael Che read jokes they wrote for each other without ever seeing them before. Live. But even when Saturday Night Live was giving us mediocre shows on the whole, they were also giving us absolute GEMS the 25% of the time the humor worked. All the greats who came along in the 1980s-2000s rose above the mediocre side of SNL. And kept the show alive and added to the pool of comedic talent so we got more variety. SNL has put new comedy talent into the entertainment machine for 50 years. Old guys who know how to do things like that are dismissive of criticism from punks who are clueless and couldn’t do his job for 1 week let alone 50 years. That doesn’t make them suck. It makes them RIGHT. And it makes clueless punks and pissants wrong for not respecting the scope of the achievement and for not asking the RIGHT questions instead of asking the asshole-y questions that piss-off experienced people who don’t have the time to explain everything that happened 20 years prior and 20 years after the asshole-event referenced by the pissant question. Older-well-accomplished people aren’t assholes when they tell you “That’s not the right question” or “You don’t know enough to understand the right answer”. What they are saying is… I haven’t got the time or patience to stand here and tell you every related incident in my personal experience that led me to that decision no matter how much of an asshole that makes me in your vastly inexperienced brain. Also… show me a pissant who hasn’t made mistakes in life. By the time they are 70+, there won’t be much, if any, room left in their Journal of What I Could Have Done Better. LM probably ran out of room in his JWICHDB 30 years ago and is on Volume 3 right now. Writing vile opinions of public people by pissants with no business criticizing anybody else is a modern sign of your life being shaped by the cesspool of the internet and social media. You “out” yourself every time you do this. People online are self-entitled pricks 9o% of the time when the write things like you wrote. It’s a sign of undiagnosed self-aggrandizement with complications caused by social media. I enjoy pointing that out to the pissants, just to remind them what THEY sound like, while playing the role of self-entitled prick myself. Enjoy your day—and maybe keep your aholeyness to yourself in the future “I must say” (Ed Grimley).
How many of the cast are probably just waiting for him to die? A bunch, i bet.
Lorne Michaels is a Republican who says that Republicans are better at jokes than Democrats.This isn’t rocket science. He’s an old rich dude who wants to uplift and signal boost the party of old rich dudes. He just happens to work in a blue city in a blue state surrounded by minorities in an industry where minorities and women provide the best chuckle per dollar.
It’s true, but he’s also from a generation that didn’t see political divisions as as, well, divisive as we see them now. No one had a problem with Rudy Giuliani being on the show until the 2010s. John McCain showed up a couple times. Sarah Palin once. Ed Koch was a semi-regular cameo.
He is probably at the same disconnect with a lot of his current performers as many of us are with our parents and grandparents. They see us as “too political”, and we see them as “hopelessly disconnected from our terrifying reality”. And it really sucks that they get the pithier catchphrase.
This is a good point. Things have definitely become more fraught, and downright weirder. And the ‘90s/’00s seem like halcyon days by comparison.The U.S. does not handle existential crises well, we’re enmeshed in several of them at once, and a good amount of us are becoming increasingly weird children under the strain of it all.But, hey, at least TVs are cheap as shit, so we’ve got the circuses part of “breads and circuses” down.
His Instagram name is fayedunaway?
I’ve always thought that was weird. It’s one thing when you’re a nobody to do that, but once he became a recognized figure, why not change the account to his own name?
Why not stop pretending you think it’s OK for him to be alive and why don’t you fuck off and die a slow, agonizing death?
Honest question to Lorne: Who is asking for Nicky Fucking Haley to be on SNL?
Nimrata herself.
This is the answer. It was likely her PR team that floated the idea.
Racist.
Who was asking for Dave Chapelle or Shane Gillis?
Incels, of course, but I don’t think they’d be going for Haley.
Well Incels be desperate…
Both Chappelle and Gillis are legitimately successful comedians, like it or not. Haley isn’t even popular among Republicans.
but she’s kind of funny
…looking.
uh, the legions of fans, which they both have, because they are not despised by everyone in the world, just the AV Club writer/staff and some of the readers.Otherwise, most of the world thinks it’s a bit much, all of this “we hate this person this week because of this” articles they post regularly, and then have the gall to criticize when people “cancel” others that they love (like Taylor or Beyonce or someone) because that’s just too much.
Or Musky.
That’s a fair question, but I think it kind of misunderstands how SNL thinks of these things. I get the sense the show at this point depends a lot on creating buzzworthy moments. That’s particularly important as the show heads into an election season, since the show has sometimes managed to really make itself part of the conversation and must-watch TV in those moments. Think, for example, of Tina Fey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin.Haley represented a chance to get a presidential candidate on the show. Moreover, because she was presented asking “Trump” a question, at the same time she is needling Trump in real life for refusing to debate, the moment was especially likely to generate a response from Trump. Having the former president and current GOP frontrunner furiously comment on your show generates buzz.
Exactly this. Trump isn’t going back on, and Biden isn’t going on. They MIGHT be able to get a Kamala Harris walk-on. Haley’s as good as they’re going to get, and they desperately want election-year buzz because of how good things were on the show in ‘08.
Biden might just surprise them, who knows?He just got done with a REALLY long open-ended interview with Conan O’Brien for his “Conan Needs a Friend” podcast. It was actually a really wide-ranging interview, and cemented in my mind more than ever that 99% of the nonsense people try to spread about Biden losing-a-step mentally is just bullshit. He’s a poor speaker who stutters and loses his place, but he’s sharp as a tack when speaking off-the-cuff in interviews. He kept up with Conan without any issues and they seemed to really click.
SNL’s number two priority: Make it 2008 again through science or magic.
I just wish they’d consider that maybe, in this political climate, anyone from the GOP supports ending our democracy and installing a dictator to varying degrees. The hoods are off. With Palin, her idiot viewpoints were not dangerous because you had an actual adult in the room in John McCain. I guess people like Lorne are going to be fine regardless. Just seems really out of touch and insulting to SNL’s viewers.
Well said.I don’t see Lorne’s endgame here.
Lorne doesnt care, by the time the US is an actual dictatorship, (if that happens) he’ll be dead.
The 2008 election broke SNL beyond repair. The Sarah Palin cold opens were literally just one joke, but they basically wrote themselves and the viewers couldn’t get enough. They’ve been trying to recreate that overnight success ever since, because writing good sketches and being funny in them is too damn much work.
As a Republican who’s big into modern sketch comedy, I don’t have an opinion because I don’t exist.
I can’t even imagine what you’d find funny.
Hurting others?
I feel like I’ve posted enough in SNL threads to confirm my existence, snowflake that I might be.
If putting her on for a few minutes gets Trump angry enough for his heart to get a little closer to The Big One, then it’s fine.
He’s just doing it to stir shit up. Or to gain conservative viewers once again. This is like when he tried to normalize Trump before the 2016 election, most cast members were very grossed out by that too.I predict this will lead to some actors like Yang jumping ship from SNL, he’s too talented to have to work alongside these casting stunts.
How much did she pay to be on?
superpack money talks
SEO
Lorne.
You guessed it…
Lorne Michaels has always had a strong streak of reactionary politics. He’s the ideological heir of the Hollywood moguls that worked directly with the Third Reich.
Candidates from both sides should be allowed to appear on the show and its clear they are trying to push anyone but trump which I fully support
Lorne Michaels that’s who.
Perhaps Michaels wanted a politician and 2024 candidate who can actually move around and speak on their own in public, like Biden and Trump can’t, and isn’t a complete imbecile, like Kamala Harris. Seriously though, our current political landscape is so stark that Nikki Haley is among the most visible politicians.
Her campaign manager
The MSM wants Nikki to be a thing as a “conservative”, non-deplorable foil for Trump.Ironically, she’s a warhawk is more deplorable.
Nikki Haley (who wouldn’t be accepted by the GOP if she used her full name) had a cameo on Instagram???
Given how Flippy-floppy Nikki has no mind:https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/02/nikki-haley-2024.htmlShe has a helluva lot of room to talk about Biden’s age. At least he imparts wisdom to his decisions—Flippy-floppy Nikki only “believes” what the focus groups tell her to act as if she believes at that point in time. And when this stands-for-nothing-but-get-elected politician yaps some blather, rest assured she’ll backtrack whenever it’s convenient. She’s 100% gutless jellyfish.
I forgot about Shane Gillis , so looked up his Instagram … this 4th pictures was with Kid Rock. Will be skipping his episode.
BRAVE
Excellent suggestion for alternative viewing material.
BALD
I’m not bald, I actually have pretty long hair.
Yeah, between yer butt cheeks!
RESIST
You can dismiss Recoegnitions from here. It’s a right wing bot.
At least some of the other trolls put some effort into their shit. For all we know, Recoegnitions just had an involuntary spasm and accidentally pasted the last “BRAVE” he wrote from his clipboard.
Bowen Yang has become a stand-in for the AV Club’s projections the last few weeks, and it is deeply weird to watch unfold.
Bowen Yang Unhappy About SNL Booking Nikki Haley (According To A Post He Made) And Shane Gillis (We Just Figure) – AV Club
Yeah I was confused, obviously Gillis got fired from SNL before his first show but have any SNL castmembers actually come out against him? People in comedy are generally pretty shy about jumping on the cancel train against other comedians.
Seriously, that’s quite a leap to assume that a gay man of Chinese descent wouldn’t be happy about appearing on a show with a guy who has made jokes at the expense of both Chinese and LGBTQ folks.
he is a comic, right? Like, he works in the comedy field and has been around other comedians who make jokeys that are not the same as his? And sometimes make said jokes about things which might even, horror, offend him?
I think Bowen will survive this, and if it’s that egregious, he can always find a new place to perfect his “comedy” which is mostly exaggerated, over-the-top “impressions” of others people which consist of him yelling and laughing at himself.
Such a tough spot, to decide: do I stay on this show which made me a virtual household name (breakout star of the last year or two) and bite my lip when my co-workers or co-workers “friends” who hang out there do something to upset me (like, you know, appear), or you know, just quit and find a new place where no one ever upsets or offends him?
Tough choice.
“Minorities don’t actually have complaints, white people just complain for them. And when minorities have complaints, they’re really just complaining because white people are forcing them to.”—How white supremacists view the world (minus the occasional mention of communist miscegenation they’ve been using since the Civil Rights Era)
Yes, so weird to assume that a gay Asian would maybe not be happy with them inviting a host with a history of homophobia and offensive Asian jokes.Dipshit.
It’s definitely weird to assume anyone holds any political belief if you don’t know them personally. You’re doing really brave/important work here though.
If they even did a smidge of research, they’d know Bowen Yang follows Shane Gillis on Instagram. And since he doesn’t follow Nikki Haley, I have a feeling Yang isn’t as anti-Gillis as this writer wants to assume.
Nvm.
it’s gonna be cool when it/is gone
Well, looks like he deleted the Insta post, so hopefully one of you guys got a screenshot so you don’t have a big white hole in middle of your article. You should be posting screenshots of that stuff anyway, just in case this kind of stuff happens
Drives me nuts that this entire group of sites never pulls screens shots and just links to things….
I’m 100% certain that embedding links is the limit of AV Club writers’ technological abilities. Taking/uploading a screenshot asks far, far too much of them.
Not just AV Club – it is all the Gawker sites including the blog on technology – gizmodo….
They consider it a liability.
Well, looks like he deleted the Insta post, Well of course he did.
Turns out being bitchy about your boss is not good for your paycheck.
“Well, looks like he deleted the Insta post”
It’s still there as I type this right now.
I’m still seeing it.
He didn’t though. I just clicked the link and it’s still there.
Lorne actively tries to normalize right-wing BS and uses young comedians to sanitize it.It’s not new.
Super brave comment.
Alright, who let Recoegnitions out of the grays?
Seems to have appointed himself the “brave” police for this thread.
It was very brave of him to do so.
He is like a bad penny.
A brave bad penny.
super obvious.
It’s like you actively try to sound as dumbas fucking possible.
dumbas
Oh hey! You’re still stupid!
You’re an old, lonely woman and you will die fairly soon.
lol OK, Buzz
What a stupid comment.
lol no ur stewpit, stewpit
Nah.
yeah huh, go put on ur kiss records
Wow you’re old huh?
You are so fucking corny.
And no one anywhere cares what you think about anything.
Someone did. Ya weirdo.
That’s fucking preposterous. Beyond silly. There is maybe a tiniest of slivers of right wing content on the show. She’s a major news figure. You people are just fucking pussies.
Only puusy here is you, afraid of facts and a world you can’t play victim in.
I’d be curious to see the political breakdown of the SNL viewership. I’d venture it’s far more conservative than the cast. With respect to Haley, the show has a long history of having on all kinds of political figures so I don’t read too much into this.
“I’d venture it’s far more conservative than the cast.”Yeah, it’s probably mostly people who like Trump that watch SNL.
This is the info-graph that NBC cares about…Most of the surveys show people find SNL too political regardless of affiliation. If it had been Harris making an appearance, she would have gotten ripped from groups just like Haley. There are more people aware of SNL from the “write-ups” and X whiny postings than watch the program but join in the conversation.*the numbers for Pete Davidson’s appearance last October were twice the engagement for this past Saturday’s SNL. Don’t know if it was a good thing or bad, I didn’t watch the show (much like I haven’t seen this past 2 weeks’ worth due to being bored by the show in general!)
Of course it is.
I would think that most popular media has a cast that’s less conservative that its audience.
How is anyone really surprised though? This has been standard on SNL for decades.Bush (W.), Gore, Obama, Palin, Trump, Biden have all appeared on the show in some capacity during their campaigns.
And Bob Dole. Bob Dole doesn’t like that you forgot about Bob Dole.
I know it. You know it. The American people know it.
Thank you for the assist. I will never live down this shame.
I’m getting old, so I thought it was pretty fun the time in the 80’s when the host was “Paul Simon,” and the musician and the Senator both walked onstage.
there you go. It goes back quite a ways
When was Bush on?
Can’t find a clip at the moment. IMDB does list him as being in one episode in 2000. I remember it was a pre recorded segment with him and Gore cutting back and forth between the two. Both of them giving straight faced campaign speeches while mocking themselves. Gore taking credit for numerous scientific and technological achievements, Bush mispronouncing every other word or using the wrong words entirely. It was good natured.
The ratings must be tanking, or something? Waaay too many nasty assholes have been showing up there for it to be any kind of accident. “Next week’s host is Gym Jordan and the musical guest is Kid Rock!”Maybe all of this bullshit will be what finally puts this show out of its misery? I think it would be a merciful act at this point.
Yeah. When are they going to have someone cool on like Jerry Nadler or Chuck Schumer? It’s so funny when Chuck does his whiny annoying Jewish guy advocating for genocide character. Or when Nadler shits his pants. Democrats are hilarious.
Schumer’s cousin hosted three times. She’s pretty funny.
“The ratings must be tanking, or something?”
Yep, that must be it. That must be why they didn’t announce Haley’s appearance and therefore there’s no way that anyone could know she was going to be on.
For the ratings.
He joined the show after trump had already hosted it. sooo
But not WHILE Trump was hosting.
You understand the difference, right?
Has Lorne finally gone senile or has he always been a closeted right wing nut?
I think Bowen Yang is very talented and I despise Haley. But honestly, SNL has been like this for decades at this point. Michaels will put on anyone who will generate a little buzz or controversy. It’s part of the deal you make working there. If he can get Sarah Palin to sneak up behind you while you do a Palin impression, he’s going to do that.
The last couple have been really bad with a over dose of random people showing up. like Fallon trying to take over the show last week.
“Bowen Yang seems less than thrilled about what is going on at Saturday Night Live”I mean, aren’t we all? It’s a shadow of its former self.
SNL loves to rip on DT. Haley is someone who rips on DT right now. seems to fit
Here’s a thought experiment: is there a single recognizable Republican politician that Bowen Yang and this writer (and many of the commenters) would be OK with seeing on SNL in 2024? Mitt Romney? Liz Cheney?
Come on, Liz has a terrible sense of timing and Mitt can only make dad jokes.
Please clap.
On American politicians Bowen Yang probably thinks Jared Polis is too conservative and straight.
Bowen Yang would think Paul Lynde was too condervative and straight.
What do you actually know about Bowen Yang? He’s a very intelligent guy. He got his degree in something technical like biochemistry, I think, and at one point was planning on becoming either a doctor or a clinical researcher. You should listen to him in interviews (or his own podcast) where he just talks off the cuff about things — he’s quite thoughtful and intellectual. And he’s certainly not the extreme leftist that you paint him as. Not every gay man is a “communist” or whatever just because they’re gay.
Are there any left who aren’t actively coming for gay rights, reproductive freedoms, and honest recitations of American history?
Being a conservative means being opposed to abortion and homosexuality so they answer to that part of your question is no there shouldn’t be, and the answer to your second question is American History has always been edited to include only what the history book manufacturers decided to put in their books, and that maybe some of the recent efforts by the right are just people trying to offset the hyper liberal ideology the left is pushing in public schools.
A) It sure as hell didn’t until you guys decided to start pretending to care about abortion to get us back for integrating schools.B) Only the stupidest or most evil dickbags think that “slavery was bad,” “system racism is a thing,” or “some families are different” are “hyper liberal ideology.”For the record, I was not looking for a stupid person to provide a stupid answer to my question.
at least my response made sense. Who is “you guys”? I am a registered Democrat. But I’m not stupid, which is the primary qualifier for being liberal. The right was opposed to integrating schools not the left, and they never pretended to care about abortion rights to get back at the left over school integration. and elementary school teachers talking to their students about their sexuality and sexual practices and schools performing medical procedures on students without parental knowledge and consent is hyper liberal ideology. I never met anyone who didn’t think that slavery is bad.
Perhaps my response didn’t make sense because you are woefully uninformed and regurgitating right-wing memes for no particular reason. Consider reading more. Start here: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/05/the-truth-about-the-religious-right-now-celebrating-the-end-of-roe.htmlThen consider: https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/floridas-new-history-standard-blow-our-students-and-nationNow, I’d love to see a source on “schools performing medical procedures on students without parental knowledge and consent.” I can’t imagine what the fuck you even imagined that to mean.And again, this isn’t about sexuality. If hetero teachers can discuss their partners but gay teachers can’t, the objection is not about sexuality.I wasn’t sure if you were on the evil or the stupid side of the spectrum, but that last post confirmed it’s stupid.
“Now, I’d love to see a source on “schools performing medical procedures
on students without parental knowledge and consent.” I can’t imagine
what the fuck you even imagined that to mean”
He needs to start using bullet points so we know which parts of his word salad is “stuff” he gleaned on the intrawebs.
That’s just nonsense. How many conservatives do you know?My father is a conservative who is pro-choice and the suggestion that he is opposed to homosexuality simply because he is conservative is frankly fucking offensive. You’re pigeonholing and belittling my family. Conservatives can absolutely be socially progressive. Not every one of them fits into your warped conception.
“Being a conservative means being opposed to abortion and homosexuality”
Go to Google. Type grey into the search bar. You will find therein examples of a color of varying shades between black and white. Click on images to see pictorial descriptions if you are still confused and/or confounded.
Gotta side with the normies. Everyone’s going after gay rights may as well join up.
No politician, from any party, has any place appearing on SNL.
Except Bernie Sanders. The man is legitimately hilarious.
Yeah, I’m hardly a “keep politics out of art” guy – all art is political, at some level – but I think actual elected officials or people running for office are best kept away from SNL and the like entirely, regardless of affiliation. They have a distinct role in society, and doing sketch comedy ain’t it.
Keeping politics out of art is impossible. Keeping politicians out of art is easy and almost always preferable.
Exactly. A fair number of their jokes are going to be politically inclined; but there’s no reason to platform actual politicians in any capacity on the show. I dislike republicans more, for sure, but I’m not interested in seeing Katie Porter or Nancy Pelosi show up for cutesy yuks, either. It’s not possible for them to appear as an ordinary citizen, a policy that lets “any” onstage doesn’t “level” in it, and it’s insipid pandering no matter how they slice it.
But also, yes, it’d be nice if Nikki Haley had been swallowed up by the beasts of hell instead of extended a chance to appear on the SNL stage.
if thats a rule, theyve been breaking it since like, the 1980s.
I mean all Republican candidates with any clout want to limit and walk back rights for queer people. It’s the fuckin’ party platform, and they actively pursue it. Does it surprise you that Bowen Yang, an openly gay man, might dislike being around them?
Republicans are not funny.
Almost always true, although that pro-voting ad where George Bush I made fun of Dana Carvey “What kind of man is named Dana, anyway?” was at least as funny as Carvey’s bad impression had been. Pretty lousy man (although heroic by today’s GOP standards), but a decent bit.
Republicans are not entitled to a guest appearance on SNL, and Yang is not required to be welcoming to a bunch of shitheads who want to destroy his human rights.
No politician or holder of public office should appear on SNL.OH LOOK I ESCAPED YOUR IMPOSSIBLE LOGIC TRAP.
Why do you describe a question as a trap and frame a conversation as a confrontation? The original question is not hostile. You are though. Just having a bad…how ever long it’s been since things were good for you?
Of course not. They all have terrible views when it comes to human rights and equality for all. Great that some stand against fascism but at end of day they get in line and do what’s needed to force others to live by their dumb views.
George Santos
You think it’s a good idea to have right wing politicians on a comedy show? How does that create exciting and compelling comedy?
Probably none. So what? We’re really at a point where noone should be pretending to be objective. The majority of the SNL cast and writers, their side is democrat.
That is not a thought experiment, that is an objectively stupid rhetorical question from a complete dips**t.Bt why the f**k does any Republican politician need to br on SNL in the first place, and why should a queen cast member be welcoming of someone from a party who wants to dehumanizing him, paint him as a subhuman freak, and take away his rights?You, sir, are a complete and utter dumbf**k.
Name one who isn’t actively trying to hurt people.
Could’ve been doing it to piss off Trump and help keep Haley in the (ultimately doomed) race longer.But yeah, the sanitizing aspect will indeed come back to bite if the GOP somehow manages to dislodge the Orange dung from the bottom of its collective boots. She’s already polling decently against Biden in the general election, which hasn’t been much of a concern as TFG is almost certainly winning the nomination.
Sounds like some extra reasons on top of the main reason not to watch SNL..
It’s hardly funny anymore and so hardly worth your time.
Holy shit no one EVER says that!Well done good sir.
It’s pretty funny when Bowen Yang does his “gay Chinese guy” character.
Humor is such a subjective thing.
You can tell Bowen is funny because he always makes the news for being mad about something.
You wouldn’t know funny even if it facefucked you like I did your mother this morning.
Gaear Grimsrud is a troll, just dismiss them.
If they want to fuck Lorne the entire cast has to exit the building at 11:29 PM.
Lmao, I love reading this article. It drives you absolutely insane that despite your best efforts, Shane Gillis became successful, huh?
I’d assume Bowen Yang has to be getting pretty tired of everyone turning his way and being like “is Bowen Yang okay with this problematic guest?” except he seems to publicly cultivate that kind of speculation.
I know, right? It happened once already, he must hate it since he posted fucking YESTERDAY on Instagram. You fucking moron.
Oh no he has an opinion?????? About his JOB???????
What else is he going to do to get his name out there? Be funny? He’s incapable.
Gotta admit, I was shocked it was the real Haley — I went the first two or three minutes thinking they got a look-alike. It is really weird that they didn’t.—-
P.S.: Weird — did Kinja just nuke all the user icons, or is it just me? I’m only seeing all those pixel-y default icons for everyone now.
Hard to even tell what’s what anymore, since I lost access to my original old account when the Twitter API blew up a while back. Here’s my dumb ass, been posting since the heydays of “Gawker Stalker”, and now I’m thrown back into the greys with a new account. “Quelle Horreur!”
: D
P.S.: Weird — did Kinja just nuke all the user icons, or is it just me? I’m only seeing all those pixel-y default icons for everyone now.Not just you.
Yep. Mine (and hey yours too!) is just shit-brown pixels. Every couple of months, for years now, something new breaks and is rarely fixed or even mentioned.
Commenting, specifically on mobile, just…stopped working for me. It says I’m logged in, but whenever I attempt to star or post or reply I’m redirected to an endless “log in to comment!” loop. I thought I might have been shadow-banned–for saying tepidly cranky things about the writers, I guess?–but commenting obviously still works fine on desktop, so I dunno.
I ended up where you are months ago … the greys are coming for us all. I can’t get out.
The greatest irony: SNL is hoping to get “cancelled” so it doesn’t get cancelled. (For the slow readers, there is no such thing as “cancel culture,” it’s a meme the bugfuck rightwingers came up with when they got into hot water for being racist sexist homophobic transphobic xenophobic dipshits in public again.)
Canceling is real. Cancel culture is a joke because the people most likely to get canceled also have a laundry list of powerful friends who are willing to lose money propping them up (see: Mel Gibson, Louie CK)
Nobody has lost money propping up Mel Gibson (or Louis CK for that matter). People have either made money working with him or he’s done things on his own. Also, almost everything thing he makes is B or C quality (or worse and mostly crap) and is straight to VOD. If streaming sites didn’t exist Gibson probably wouldn’t be working so much. The only person that lost money on Louis CK was Louis CK
“Canceling is real.”
No. It isn’t.
Mel Gibson wasn’t canceled and neither was Louis. Neither was Weinstein or Spacey.
Canceling is not real and you are a pathetic child for trying to convince people it is.
You should tell the whiny douche he can have a job writing these articles.
“No way women wrote the fuckin’ Matrix… and then I googled it and it’s just dudes in wigs.”Ha! You’ve accidentally made Gillis into the only entertaining person in the whole article.
Have no idea who Bowen Yang is so came to the article to find out. Still have no clue who Bowen Yang is.
You must be quite stupid if you’re still coming here for reliable information or anything resembling competent writing.
Google it
I’m way less offended by whatever Gillis did on social media that got him canned, as I am by how unfunny he is. Just let Mulaney be the permanent host.
Seriously I watched the video that got him booted the first time and yeah it’s kind of offensive but specifically in that ignorant “We don’t even have anything to say here really” kinda way. (Granted this may be the curse of unscripted comedy podcasts.)
You say that like it makes it better.
Bowen Yang can always just leave SNL, for the glittering career that no doubt awaits.
You’re correct. He’s outgrown the show, and SNL needs him more than he needs SNL. I agree with your sincere statement.
lol That’s such a funny thing to think about a no talent like Bowen. Bowen doesn’t have the talent to make it on his own. That’s why he pretends to be mad while doing nothing so he doesn’t burn any bridges with NBC and Lorne Michaels.
Outgrown the show? For what? $10K one day shoot bits in not-so-blockbuster and/or indie films doing stereotypical caricatures?
Much like every other SNL alum, he’ll only become a household name once he leaves the show.
He typed, from behind the counter of a gas station.
Who the fuck is bowen yang?
A comedian. Are you a fucking dumbfuck who can’t Google?
Who the fuck are you?
Dude, even I know who Bowen Yang is , and I haven’t recognised a single US celebrity since 2002
Cynicism and contrarianism has always been part of SNL fabric but now it seems like the show is trolling its own audience.
Bowen is one of the most talented people on SNL and having the most success outside of the show with projects. If he leaves, there will be a huge hole that is Lorne’s making.
I thought, outside of that horribly-placed Nikki joke, the episode was very solid. The writing team atm (I believe it’s Please Dont Destroy?) is more consistently funny than they’ve been in years. I have been actively excited for SNL lately – and I’m not concerned here or there with the politics. SNL will always be looking to poke to bear for views. I also took it as wanting to showcase a GOP candidate that has the best shot against Trump, not that she’s all that.
Yang was a diversity hire. He’s basically a recipient of welfare. He’s a D-list celebrity who should shut up about whomever Lorne Michaels hires to work on HIS show.The Wackowski brothers are men and therefore brothers not sisters. When they wrote The Matrix most of the ideas were taken from preexisting IP. They were able to translate the success of that movie into a career making shitty movies , so congratulations to them for that. Anybody still accusing anyone else of spreading Covid misinformation is clearly not paying attention to news stories proving most of the Covid bullshit we heard about was in fact bullshit, which includes the vaccines which even some of the pro-vaccine people, including Anthony Fauci, are now admitting is killing people. Gillis “nodded” along to a rape joke. Like SNL has never made tasteless jokes about people. Has Mary Carr not watched when Lindsay Lohan hosted the show at the age of 17 and many inappropriate sexual jokes were made about her?
I hear suicide is a lot of fun. You should try it.
Are things so bad at the AVC that your newswire feature has to dredge up stories from three weeks ago for the front page?
LOL so many tears in this thread and half the people and probably more than that guaranteed don’t even watch the show.