My brain chemistry was forever altered when I first saw Bowen Yang as the iceberg who sank Titanic on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment. With some kind of papier-mâché monstrosity on his head and face makeup that made him look like a Mr. Freeze henchman from the schlocky Joel Schumacher Batman movie, he was truly a spectacle to behold — and then he opened his mouth. Yang’s perfect rant about how the ship ran into him, thank you very much, immediately endeared me to him. Then only a featured player on SNL, Yang was promoted to repertory status that fall, in time for the start of the 2021-22 season.
Yang is a man of many talents, but I trace so much of his subsequent success back to that iceberg schtick. It was absurdist, pop-culture obsessed, and frankly, very queer — a signature blend that has served him well. Since that Update bit, Yang has been nominated for three Emmys for his work on the long-running variety program, with his work arguably becoming synonymous with the show’s sillier and more off-kilter approach to humor in the 2020s. Whether he’s appearing on Update or even playing a heterosexual version of himself, Yang is always a delight to see on screen, the same way show staple Kenan Thompson can make the audience crack up before even uttering a single line.
In honor of Yang’s storied SNL career so far, I compiled a list of some of his finest moments on the show, from well-known bits like the gay Oompa Loompa to some truly deep cuts. Let’s get started.
The Iceberg on the Sinking of the Titanic
I’ve already talked about the Update appearance itself, so let me just say a few words about how the iceberg character came to be. During a Tonight Show interview a couple weeks after that stroke of brilliance aired live, Yang told Jimmy Fallon about its genesis. Head writer Anna Drezen proposed the idea, and Yang initially brushed it aside until the week leading up to the anniversary of the ship’s sinking. Once they mutually realized it was actually an inspired notion, Drezen and Yang spent the entire week leading up to the April 10, 2021 show crafting something so silly they weren’t sure if it could ever make it to air.
“We kept looking at each other and bursting out laughing,” Yang recalled. “On Saturday, at 7 p.m. as we’re supposed to turn in scripts, we were like, ‘What are we doing?’” Creating a work of staggering genius — that’s what they were doing!
Jafar on Ron DeSantis’ Attacks on Disney
Speaking of Yang’s incredible run of Weekend Update appearances, his turn as an openly gay Jafar is another all-timer. Come for Jafar’s pronunciation of “Rockefeller Palace,” and stay for his expert read of Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ hideous white cowboy boots. (“They wore him,” Jafar snidely quips.)
“If the boy thinks he can somehow prevent Disney World from being gay, that carpet has flown,” Yang says, in his best villainous timbre, going on to deliver an important reminder: notorious anti-LGBTQ+, anti-Disney crusader Ron DeSantis literally got married at his state’s most popular theme park.
Bowen’s Straight
Whoever said gay actors can’t convincingly play straight has never heard Bowen Yang utter the words “heavy naturals” or seen him hold a PS5 controller. The premise of this filmed sketch is deceptively simple: Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney develops what she thinks is a hopeless crush on Yang while hosting, only to find out that he is merely pretending to be gay as a “meal ticket.” The foreplay ratchets up to a truly wild degree, with Sweeney at one point breathily saying that her type is “gay-presenting Asian podcasters.” A Las Culturistas shout-out on SNL is truly the pièce de résistance to this cinematic masterpiece.
Coal Miners Face-Off
I suppose I can understand why this sketch was cut for time: RuPaul and Bowen Yang as effete coal miners having a soap opera-esque enemies-to-lovers encounter while a Greek chorus just offscreen comments on every minor development in their conversation? That’s a pretty high concept for broadcast television! But fortunately, this gem— and the hilarious slap fight at its center — later found its audience on YouTube.
SoulCycle
A notable early appearance for Yang, this 2019 sketch introduced us to an array of increasingly bizarre prospective SoulCycle instructors as they auditioned for a permanent place on the gym’s roster. Playing a man named Flint (“like the water”), Yang delivers a pair of faux-inspirational speeches that foreshadow the show’s decidedly silly turn in the 2020s.
My favorite of the two? “Abraham Lincoln died. It didn’t have to happen. Poor guy. If I’d have been there, I would have stopped it, but I wasn’t. Will you be? Let’s ride!”
(As someone who has been to nearly 400 spin classes by now, I just have to add that this is eerily accurate.)
A Proud Gay Oompa Loompa on Timothée Chalamet
Yang’s Weekend Update appearance as the iceberg that sank the Titanic has a certain timeless quality to it, but I will always have a soft spot for this response to a hyper specific moment in pop-culture discourse: the day we first saw the photos of Timothée Chalamet in character on the set of Wonka and everyone on Twitter simultaneously called him a “twink.”
Introduced by Update host Colin Jost as a “proud gay Oompa Loompa,” Yang’s character quickly realizes that the workers’ rights message he wanted to convey will now be overshadowed by the fact that he has been outed on national television. That’s a funny concept in and of itself, but it’s the gay Oompa Loompa’s critique of the conditions at the chocolate factory — especially his complaint about rehearsing “the little song and dance we do when a child dies” — that really bring the laughs here. I’d propose he start an Oompa Loompa union if he weren’t already “in IATSE.”
Straight Male Friend
This ad for the concept of gay men trying out a “low-effort, low-stakes” friendship with a straight dude is by far my favorite of the fake commercials Bowen Yang has appeared in on SNL. Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce is perfectly cast as a refreshingly undemanding hang who just wants to eat wings and play video games.
“Straight Male Friend is easy and even if he’s having a rough time emotionally, he’ll never bring me into it,” Yang says in his best adspeak.
But it’s the disclaimer on the chyron that kills me every time: “Three or more straight male friends may result in a trip to Atlantic City.” Be warned.
Doctor
The premise of this one is impossible to describe beyond the fact that Bowen Yang and Ryan Gosling play incredibly strange physicians who inform a family that their grandfather has passed away. The sketch itself is funny enough, but it really goes off the rails when Gosling starts to break. By the time Yang and Gosling are feeding each other spoonfuls of crumbled cookies with little red spoons, there’s no hope of the rest of the cast keeping it together.
George Santos Expelled Cold Open
The rise and fall of George Santos inspired a micro-wave of comedian impersonators, but no one captured his impishly corrupt energy of the disgraced former congressman better than Bowen Yang across multiple episodes of SNL.
For our purposes here, I’ll highlight the biggest platform Yang got for his channeling of Santos’ grifter energy: a December 2023 cold open shortly after the New York representative was officially expelled from the House.
“Fine, so I’m no longer Congressman Santos,” he hilariously tells a group of reporters that he assembled himself. “I’m just regular old Professor Major General Reverend Astronaut Santos, Protector of the Realm, Princess of Genovia.”
The six-minute sketch culminates in a live piano number (“Scandal in the Wind”) that showcases Yang’s vocal talents. Truly, as Stefon might say, this cold open had everything.
Troye Sivan Sleep Demon
I consider this 2023 sketch to be the spiritual sequel to Bowen Yang’s appearance as the gay Oompa Loompa two years prior. When a woman gets admitted to the hospital after claiming to see a gay man dancing in her sleep in the middle of the night, Yang’s doctor character quickly discovers the “sleep demon” is, in fact, Troye Sivan doing the “Get Me Started” choreography, played to perfection by Timothée Chalamet.
The doctor’s diagnostic process is hilarious in and of itself — “What did he look like? Shirt as small as can be, pants as big as they come?” — but it’s his exasperation over the boundary between gay and straight fame that gives this sketch satirical bite.
“Isn’t he kind of famous?” the patient asks.
“He’s gay famous, it’s different,” Yang replies, shaking his clipboard in frustration.
“Oh, so he’s like Nathan Lane?”
“No, not at all!”
Exactly.
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