Bowen Yang

“A few years ago I was participating in a comedic 'Inner Beauty Pageant' and I had to figure out a talent very last-minute. I always loved Tyra Banks's 'We were all rooting for you!' moment, and so I decided to lip-sync live to the six-minute entirety of it as my talent.”

“I don't get too, like, you know, freaked out or nervous around famous people. But for some reason, Yvonne Orji is just one of those people where I'm like, I'm too - I would be too nervous to meet her.”

“I wonder if there's space to queer the nomenclature in fitness. Maybe we call a goblet squat a Dannii Minogue instead? Just an idea.”

“There's some humility that has to be constant. And if I ever put pressure on myself to represent in any meaningful way for Asian people, then that would just get in my way in terms of thinking that I am destined to speak on behalf of multiple people.”

“I've fully turned a corner in terms of thinking about my own voice. I think I have a pretty cool voice, just sonically.”

“I feel like 'SNL' is this kind of fixed, refractive prism. And whatever comes through it is just whatever - is just the absurdity of what's going on in the world or what people are saying or what's not being said.”

“Pandemic life has turned me into a freak for baths, and my process is involved enough to make it fun. I pour in some bubble bath, add a pouch of Japanese onsen powder, and place some candles around the bathroom for ambiance.”

“Holding those two identities of being gay and Asian have, I guess, made my skin a little thicker.”

“Just classic immigrant story - I mean, child of immigrant story - did not grow up with cable and so felt constantly like I was being spoken to in a foreign language when I would go to school. And people would be like, did you watch this? Did you watch that? I'd be like, no, but I did watch 'SNL.'”

“After high school, I really learned to love myself. I finally stopped getting bullied by straight people. Then, I pretty much immediately started getting tormented by gay people for my taste in music.”

“A lot of different people under the queer umbrella come together but Like there's something inherently queer about the heist genre, in some way. It's about just flying under the radar and procuring something furtively or, you know, that thing that is just so fun and high-stakes in the way that a lot of queer experiences are.”

“I think any gay comedian will acknowledge the fact that he or she is gay - it's not a coincidence, it's deeply who they are.”

“And I would go on all these college tours. And I was thinking about where I would want to go. And at the end of each tour, I'd be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you guys have any improv groups?'”

“We tell ourselves, It's important to get a sense of what people are saying about me.' But it really feeds some narcissistic impulse to check and see if people like you.”

“I always end up making friends at Pride and like, I see them throughout the year, but then you always have that nice, fond memory of, 'Oh my goodness I saw that person at this march, or this event.'”

“I think the whole glue of Search Party' is this idea of victimhood.”

“There have been times where I have said, even in a sketch that I'm not in, 'I don't think you should be making that joke at the expense of Asian people.'”

“Being an Asian person on SNL,' when people are like, 'Why did it take so long?' It's sort of a question that doesn't fully understand the idea that there is no developmental experiential process for a queer Asian person to get into comedy in a way that feels inevitable.”

“This is what gay nightlife is: It's about building an image. You are constantly in proprioception where you're clocking your own movement through space constantly.”

“It's a big deal to have Peppermint and Jiggly, two trans women, be on a pre-taped sketch for Saturday Night Live.'”