NBC
Former Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang feels aggrieved about his time on the iconic sketch comedy series because he “never felt central.” The numbers, however, tell a different story.
Despite appearing in over 300 sketches across seven seasons on Saturday Night Live, Bowen Yang apparently still didn’t feel like a main character. 300+ sketches over seven years equates to roughly 43 sketches per season, which is an unusually high number and suggests he was one of the most-used cast members on the show.
While Bowen Yang said he “never felt central” to Saturday Night Live, the stats regarding his sketch appearances suggest otherwise
According to the SNL Network, a podcast that religiously covers Saturday Night Live, Yang had 2 hours and 39 seconds of screentime during his final season (Season 50), which made him the 2nd most featured cast member of that season. In Seasons 48 and 49, he also had the second-most screentime.
Yang, however, doesn’t see it that way, as he told Rachel Sennott during Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series that he never “felt central” during his time on Saturday Night Live.
“I never felt like I was that central to it, to be honest,” Yang said. “I feel like there was a weird utility to me. I never played the dad or the straight-man teacher. I was always there as the seasoning.”
Given the number of sketches that Yang appeared in and the type of characters he usually played, however, fans on social media were quick to disagree.
If I’m Lorne Michaels or another cast member and I saw this after Bowen Yang was in 89% of sketches for 5 years I’d show up with a gun https://t.co/Mx8DX9klQk
— Eric Nathan (@BarstoolNate) June 8, 2026
Yeah man that’s your archetype. You don’t exactly show a lot of range lol https://t.co/8TOO7epDI3
— dani (@AutismRonin) June 8, 2026
“Everyone who has ever worked for SNL has said that it’s a constant hustle and you have to actively go for all the roles you can because no one will hand you anything,” read one response.
“Larry David has said that SNL cast members pitch ideas for sketches and they have to be approved. This just means Bowen couldn’t come up with anything,” a second added.
“I’m sure Mikey Day will trade the dad roles for your 4 supporting actor Emmy nominations,” a third argued.
“That’s his own fault, it’s literally his job to create sketches for himself that work,” a fourth concurred.
“I’m really confused cause he was constantly in sketches. Don’t know how he can feel he was underutilized. They pushed this dude hard.”
“Is he upset he always played the character that delivered the punchline instead of the setup?”
When role players think they are the main guy smh https://t.co/SkcpPgW5vQ
— drew (@ImNotOwned) June 8, 2026
Every comedic actor’s dream: to be the straight man in a sketch. https://t.co/iHankA4TkW
— Jesse Brenneman (@Jesse_Brenneman) June 8, 2026
Since leaving SNL in 2025, Yang has been hosting his popular Las Culturistas alongside Matt Rogers and has had roles in films such as Wicked, Wicked: For Good, and the upcoming animated The Cat in the Hat movie.