From Aurora to Saturday Night Live: Bowen Yang's Best Bits on Weekend Update

Bowen Yang wasn't born in Colorado, but most of his young life was spent right here, and he attended Smoky Hill High School in Aurora. That was where Yang got his first taste of comedy, too — from his calculus teacher, who also headed up the school improv group. By the time Yang graduated from Smoky Hill in 2008, he'd been named Homecoming King as well as "Most Likely to Be a Cast Member of Saturday Night Live" in the yearbook.

Unlike most high school proclamations, that prediction turned out to be spot-on. Yang moved to New York City, came up through improv groups there as well as his own comedy podcast (Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers), and was hired as an SNL writer in 2018. He was brought on as a cast member the very next year.

Saturday Night Live is turning fifty this year, an anniversary it's celebrating with a three-house special airing this Sunday. In the meantime, here are some of hometown hero Yang's funniest turns at the Weekend Update newsdesk, Smoky Hill High-style.

Moo Deng
First off, props to the SNL costume department for coming up with a surprisingly effective baby hippo costume. The viral sensation seemed like a natural fit for the costume-loving Yang. "Before me," Yang says with the clipped voice of a baby hippo asserting their rights in the workplace (somehow), "the only hippos in media were Hungry, Hungry and Jada Pinkett Smith in Madagascar." Luckily, when Yang had his eyes closed while being shot in the face with hose water, Will Smith didn't show up and violently tell Moo Deng to keep his wife's name outta his fuckin' mouth.

Joe Exotic
Ever wonder what happened to Joe Exotic after the pandemic, in which it became mandatory for everyone in America to binge Tiger King, not to mention have an opinion about what Carole Baskin did with her husband? Yang catches us up, presenting us with a Joe Exotic who's no longer running for President from prison (and as a Democrat), but who's now asking to be part of Trump's cabinet, since "like my mullet, my politics are country over party." Honestly, with RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth firmly ensconced in positions they're unqualified and spectacularly inappropriate for...Joe Exotic getting the Trumpian nod for, say, Interior Secretary is absolutely possible. (Sorry, Doug Burgum...you just don't have the name recognition of the Tiger King.) 
Disney Villain Jafar on Florida Villain Ron DeSantis
Yang was able to get political with his takedown of Florida governor Ron DeSantis, whom Yang referred to as "the Boy," while acquiescing that DeSantis was "plenty evil. I mean, banning Rosa Parks in schools? I'm a Dark Sorcerer and even I was like Jesus, dude, it's Rosa Parks." Given the Darkest Timeline (TM Community) through which we're currently living, it only makes sense for Yang's Jafar to make a return appearance to explain just how the villainous mind works.

(Former) Representative George Santos
By some fluke, New York Representative George Santos has slipped from the public eye since his ouster from the U.S. House of Representatives...but before that happened, Yang skewered the serial-liar congressman for his utterly ridiculous behavior. "I'm not a liar," Yang-as-Santos claims. "Not like Balloon Boy. That boy who lied about being in a balloon? Remember him? Because that was me." That boy was in Colorado, by the way, and Yang once also played that Chinese spy balloon spotted in the States.
A Proud Gay Oompa-Loompa
Yang's homosexuality is often part of his comedy, but perhaps never so much as when he portrayed an otherwise-unnamed "proud gay Oompa-Loompa," appearing on Weekend Update to address the upcoming portrayal by Timothy Chalamet as a "twink Wonka...or Twonka." In doing so, host Colin Jost accidentally outs him on national television —allowing Yang to not only poke fun at the Wonka-tastrophe, but also make a point about being outed to one's family. But the best line of the sketch is directly aimed at the classic Gene Wilder movie: "Meanwhile, we're up all night rehearsing the little song and dance we do when a child diiiees." 

Chen Biao
One of the issues with the great bits that Yang does on Weekend Update is that they're so current that they usually can't make repeat appearances, much less become ongoing characters. Santos was one happy exception to that, as is his portrayal of Chinese Trade Minister Chen Biao, who's made several re-appearances on Update (and with the Trump administration's focus on China, most assuredly will again). "Human riiiiights...," Yang says in an appropriately terrible Chinese accent, "...yeeeeaaah, we don't have that." And then he shows a cute panda mascot. It's a brilliant microcosm of contemporary politics: absolutely transparent awfulness with a smile and a nod to a pleasant distraction. At least China's distractions are adorable. Ours here in Trump's America are the denial of human rights for trans people and the idea of turning Greenland into Red, White, and Blueland. Holy shit, we wish that were just a joke. 
The Iceberg That Sank the Titanic
It's a surreal idea: the historic iceberg that took out the "unsinkable" ship back in 1912 comes on Weekend Update not to talk about that well-known tragedy, but instead to promote its new album, a "hyper-pop/EDM/new disco fantasia called Music." But inevitably, Yang the iceberg is prodded to talk about its most notable moment: "Look," it says, "you came to where I live and hit me."