Bowen Yang Explains ‘SNL’ Exit and Confronts Criticism That He Had ‘No Range’: ‘Anytime I Would Try’ Something Different, People Still Said ‘He’s Being Gay and Asian as Always’
Bowen Yang Explains ‘SNL’ Exit and Confronts Criticism That He Had ‘No Range’: ‘Anytime I Would Try’ Something Different, People Still Said ‘He’s Being Gay and Asian as Always’
The straight cast members all get to play different straight characters without anyone demanding they play gay. There’s plenty of variety in Bowen’s gay characters.
MarvelsGrantMan136 on
Bowen:
>“The current entertainment ecosystem is so turbulent that people have completely valid reasons for staying longer, or in a lot of cases, don’t have the privilege of staying on as long as they would like to. I have this very beautiful thing where I get to say that I stayed on exactly as long as I wanted to. I was maybe unsure about going back in the summer, and I’m so glad I did.”
>“I feel like I was really bogged down the entire time I was there about the idea that there was no range in anything I did,” Yang said. When Rogers said that was a lazy insult, Yang said he understood it: “I knew I was never gonna play the dad. I was never gonna play the generic thing in sketches. It’s a sketch show; Each thing is like four minutes long. It is short and collapsed by necessity, so therefore it plays on archetypes.”
>“These archetypes are also in a relationship with generic things, and there is a genericism in whiteness and in being a canvas to build upon. I came in pre-stretched, pre-dyed. People had their over-determinations on what I was, which was: ‘Oh, that’s just the gay Asian guy on “SNL.”‘ So anytime I would try to work outside of that, it got completely ignored or it still got collapsed to, ‘Oh, he’s being gay and Asian as always.’”
>“I think range is a myth and it’s all about palatability, whether you’re getting taxed on it or you are subsidized.”
Mammoth_Mountain_326 on
He really grew on me, and anyone who says he has no range apparently has not seen Jane Wickline.
FMBongo on
I have no context on this situation but if he’s trying something different and no one can tell, he probably has no range.
In_My_Own_Image on
My only issue was when he played Vance or other real people and played them as catty gay men. It was like how McKinnon played every real person as a quirky weirdo.
His original characters were all fun.
LawrenceBrolivier on
Variety basically doing their “take someone’s podcast and turn it into content for our publication” thing here (the sheer number of news stories spawned from any given episode of “The Lonely Island & Seth Myers Podcast” is fucking ridiculous, especially considering what that show IS) but one of these quotes jumped right out:
>Rogers remarked, “You did so many things. I don’t think people necessarily know they’re being homophobic when they say that,” and Yang concurred: “I think range is a myth and it’s all about palatability, whether you’re getting taxed on it or you are subsidized.”
>**“Do they knock Pete Davidson for range?” Rogers said. Or does he get to get away with it because it’s cool and within a male gaze?**”
It’s a great point – why is it that “where’s the range” got so consistently, constantly trotted out in regards to the ONE gay Asian castmember to have ever been on the show, and it’s almost never brought up when talking about basically anyone else? The almost unconscious level of arms-folded “show me something then” that gets brought to the table when it comes to Yang (who was consistently funny no matter what) is 100% rooted in some plain ol bullshit.
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The straight cast members all get to play different straight characters without anyone demanding they play gay. There’s plenty of variety in Bowen’s gay characters.
Bowen:
>“The current entertainment ecosystem is so turbulent that people have completely valid reasons for staying longer, or in a lot of cases, don’t have the privilege of staying on as long as they would like to. I have this very beautiful thing where I get to say that I stayed on exactly as long as I wanted to. I was maybe unsure about going back in the summer, and I’m so glad I did.”
>“I feel like I was really bogged down the entire time I was there about the idea that there was no range in anything I did,” Yang said. When Rogers said that was a lazy insult, Yang said he understood it: “I knew I was never gonna play the dad. I was never gonna play the generic thing in sketches. It’s a sketch show; Each thing is like four minutes long. It is short and collapsed by necessity, so therefore it plays on archetypes.”
>“These archetypes are also in a relationship with generic things, and there is a genericism in whiteness and in being a canvas to build upon. I came in pre-stretched, pre-dyed. People had their over-determinations on what I was, which was: ‘Oh, that’s just the gay Asian guy on “SNL.”‘ So anytime I would try to work outside of that, it got completely ignored or it still got collapsed to, ‘Oh, he’s being gay and Asian as always.’”
>“I think range is a myth and it’s all about palatability, whether you’re getting taxed on it or you are subsidized.”
He really grew on me, and anyone who says he has no range apparently has not seen Jane Wickline.
I have no context on this situation but if he’s trying something different and no one can tell, he probably has no range.
My only issue was when he played Vance or other real people and played them as catty gay men. It was like how McKinnon played every real person as a quirky weirdo.
His original characters were all fun.
Variety basically doing their “take someone’s podcast and turn it into content for our publication” thing here (the sheer number of news stories spawned from any given episode of “The Lonely Island & Seth Myers Podcast” is fucking ridiculous, especially considering what that show IS) but one of these quotes jumped right out:
>Rogers remarked, “You did so many things. I don’t think people necessarily know they’re being homophobic when they say that,” and Yang concurred: “I think range is a myth and it’s all about palatability, whether you’re getting taxed on it or you are subsidized.”
>**“Do they knock Pete Davidson for range?” Rogers said. Or does he get to get away with it because it’s cool and within a male gaze?**”
It’s a great point – why is it that “where’s the range” got so consistently, constantly trotted out in regards to the ONE gay Asian castmember to have ever been on the show, and it’s almost never brought up when talking about basically anyone else? The almost unconscious level of arms-folded “show me something then” that gets brought to the table when it comes to Yang (who was consistently funny no matter what) is 100% rooted in some plain ol bullshit.
“Have you tried not being Asian and gay?”