Bowen Yang Said The 'Worst' SNL Host Made Several Cast Members Cry

Saturday Night Live staple Bowen Yang went on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live, and he dished a teensy, tiny bit about how the “worst” SNL host drove more than one cast member to tears.

Bowen Yang is the third openly gay SNL cast member in Saturday Night Live’s history, and he joined the cast back in 2018.

SNL isn’t Bowen’s only active project, although his routinely memorable skits and characters could easily lead one to believe otherwise.

Bowen also co-hosts a podcast called Las Culturistas with fellow comic Matt Rogers, and the duo sat down with Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live to discuss a bevy of topics.

On YouTube, Watch What Happens Live shared a segment featuring Bowen, Matt, and Andy on August 11:

The segment was titled “Bowen Yang Talks About The Worst Behavior He’s Seen From An SNL Host,” and it depicted a “rapid-fire questions” portion of WWHL, “Truth Or Kink.”

WWHL’s “Truth Or Kink” segment requires a bit of explanation before we delve into the topics discussed.

First, Andy Cohen produced what he described as a “pair of vibrating panties,” a garment that looked like bedazzled boxer briefs.

Andy explained that Bowen’s co-host Matt had agreed to wear the “panties” – over his pants – and that a series of questions would follow, addressed to one of the three men.

According to Andy, for every question someone was “too chicken to answer,” Bowen would “zap” Matt with a remote.

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Andy Asked Bowen Yang About The ‘Worst SNL Host Behavior’

For the segment, a screen behind the three men oscillated, displaying a series of questions addressed to Andy, Matt, or Bowen.

The first question the screen landed on was addressed to Matt and involved the Real Housewives reunions, and Andy read it aloud:

“Matt, name one time you were frustrated with how Andy handled a housewife at a reunion.”

Bowen gasped, and Matt shook his head, almost as if he was about to give Andy terrible news, or permanently damage their relationship by answering.

Matt then apologized, and Andy quietly said “it’s okay,” all of which occurred before Matt answered the question.

Matt ultimately confessed to Andy that he “was always very ‘Team Carol’ in that situation” and added: “I always thought you went way too easy on [RHONY’s Bethenny Frankel.]”

Subjectively, Andy looked decidedly crestfallen at the answer, hinting at why he and his guests might be “too chicken” to answer the questions.

As Andy processed this apparently distressing information, the screen spun a second time, to a question addressed to Cohen about which “housewife” he wouldn’t want to see again.

Andy did not answer the question, and Matt got buzzed before the screen rotated a third time, revealing the question to Bowen about SNL hosts:

“Bowen, without naming names, what is the worst SNL host behavior you [have] witnessed?”

This particular question generated a number of headlines, but an important detail was often missing — a condition of the question asked of Bowen was that he answer “without naming names.”

It’s hard to tell if the reason for “not naming names” was to allow Bowen to speak freely, or for something else like liability, but Bowen was not asked to name the worst host, merely to describe their behavior.

Bowen answered immediately, and it was clear he had to keep stopping himself from revealing too much, and that he wanted to say more:

“Oh my gosh … Well, uh … this man who — this person, this host, um, made multiple cast members cry on Wednesday during the reh– before the table read, because he hated the ideas! [Crosstalk] Terrible!”

Matt cut in, saying the SNL host Bowen referenced had “new PR,” meaning the man had recently replaced or obtained the services of public relations staffers.

Although the segment moved on to another question, YouTube commenters speculated about which SNL host made “multiple cast members cry” under the following comment:

“Who is Bowen talking about for bad SNL host behavior[?]”

Commenters offered up several potential candidates –Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Elon Musk, Woody Harrelson, and Kanye West – largely without any additional commentary to explain why.

While most of the comments simply mentioned a name, one commenter seconded “Elon Musk” as the “worst SNL host,” replying:

“Has to be Elon. It [was said] he shot down TONS of skits [because] he didn’t want to do anything even close to making fun of himself[.]”

The conversation called to mind a bit by former SNL writer John Mulaney, who said Mick Jagger hurt his feelings when the singer declared several pre-show table jokes “not funny!”

Over on Reddit, similar speculation occurred in greater detail; some SNL fans contested the suggestion Bill Burr was the host in question, and another strong candidate was mentioned: Chevy Chase, whose reputation on and off SNL is patchy at best:

2:30

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Several Reddit users posited that Eddie Murphy was the SNL host in question – with one apparent interjection from autocorrect – describing the comic as a “legit duck.”

Although Bowen Yang did not name the SNL host who made the cast members cry, he did confirm that the person was a “man,” and it had to have been someone who hosted in the past six years.

Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen

Release Date

July 16, 2009

Network

NBC

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