What Bowen Yang has said about Saturday Night Live

Yang said his main advice for aspiring comedians is being in the right place at the right time, which cannot be known in advance.

“if you can be at the right place at the right time, but there's never any way of knowing”

SmartLess: "Bowen Yang" (Jun 1, 2026) · Listen from 18:32

Yang recounted assuming SNL would never hire an effeminate Asian man, so he made his audition tape without worrying about it.

“And I was like, they'll never, ever fucking hire an effeminate, asian guy like on that show like why would they ever need that”

SmartLess: "Bowen Yang" (Jun 1, 2026) · Listen from 23:26

Yang recalled having to memorize his Kim Jong-un lines in Korean because his costume glasses lacked his prescription.

“Learned the Korean, was off-book on a foreign language”

SmartLess: "Bowen Yang" (Jun 1, 2026) · Listen from 35:10

Yang said that after leaving SNL he is unlearning habits while also mourning his former life.

“I'm still unlearning so many things in a way that I am grateful for, and I also mourn how my life used to be”

SmartLess: "Bowen Yang" (Jun 1, 2026) · Listen from 47:44

Yang said his nervous system is still adjusting from the SNL schedule of working until done and then sleeping.

“my nervous system is still sort of like resetting from SNL where it just knows a work is done, then it's time to go to bed”

SmartLess: "Bowen Yang" (Jun 1, 2026) · Listen from 50:06