Back in 2022, both Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman refused to participate in the episode Dave hosted. Real ones

It's a sad, tragic truth that the comfort of the majority is deemed more important than the safety of a minority

"queer people need to learn more peaceful ways to protest" -silently dissents and stays far "omg that's so disruptive" Literally no winning

It's infuriating - you hit the nail on the head exactly with why I hate going home for the holidays. All the conservative relatives I have are allowed to say whatever they want and just run their mouths off with homophobic/transphohic/misogynistic garbage, but the second I say something back, I've caused a scene and made a big deal out of something.

Nothing says "cancelled" like just walking on-stage uninvited in front of the cameras without being tackled by security.

Maybe "and then Dave Chappel showed up" will be the new phrase to indicate when things take a turn for the worse.

Everybody wants to talk about what Bowen should do differently, but no one wants to talk about what the station, Michaels, or anyone else in power should do differently.

Considering how much anti-trans rhetoric is about people being in spaces they shouldn't be, I feel like there's a certain amount of irony to him just wandering in and being welcomed

I feel like anyone arguing that casual transphobia isn't harmful are the same people who wouldn't have done more than glance over if they saw a black guy being harassed for simply existing in the 1960s. You're content with the way things are and refuse to make any change, no matter how small, to progress society to be more equitable for all. Never seen anything with this Bowen guy in it, but he deserves his silent and likely-to-go-unnoticed protest. There's not a lot he could do without risking what I'm sure is a pretty substantial paycheck, but doing anything in this context is better than what everyone else is doing - nothing.

A multiply marginalized person refusing to politely assimilate is a powerful thing, even in a small act.

One of the hardest things about coming out was realizing I had become a second class member of the family and that no one else would ever acknowledge it. The more you speak up the more you become the bad guy

I used to think my school was nice and supportive, plenty of queer people and never faced any explicit homophobia. Then I got laughed in the face when i pointed out whatmoney to Hogwarts Legacy would be used for, told I had to attend a Harry Potter themenight, and someone wrote a swastika in my yearbook at the end of the year. twice.

That was a very visual, physical protest by Bowen. I respect that. As a queer person, sometimes you can't take yourself out of these situations or you have to "eat shit" with other people's behaviours when they make you feel uncomfortable. He did what he could in the situation. He has to keep his job but wants to make it known his distaste of Dave being present.

Is this... a ploy? Are you deliberately teasing this "Lego" build so that we'll keep watching each new video to see how much progress you make? If so, congratulations -- it is *working.*

Honestly, it’s the non-queer cast members who ought to be criticized for not leaving in protest. There’s definitely reasons why we think it’s strange for someone directly influenced by the problems of their careers to support it, but having fewer queer people in the room isn’t about to have the big impact that we’d like. But also, I get it. It does feel wrong for someone aware of the problem to keep helping the people causing it. Life is a complicated place.

also not to speculate but bowen definitely said something about him to sarah sherman next to him because they both react by looking in his direction, he was making his discomfort pretty clear while physically marginalising himself as to not draw attention to it

he is just far enough into the photo to indicate he was on the premises and I kinda like that statement. He's saying that by inviting Dave Chappelle into that space for no reason at all, they have effectively told him to get out but wont let him leave, since the whole cast has to be there. He did the absolute bare minimum.

Bowen Yang is probably one of the best new cast members. I feel like SNL has only been better lately

Yeah. Literally the most relatable queer moment. We’ve all had to be in A Room with Someone and just. Have to exist around them and in your head your screaming “they hate me ! They’ve made a living out of making jokes out of me and my friends and you’re all just chilling”

The older I get, the more I empathize with the "burn the whole system down" mentality. Comfort is prioritized over safety, and just pointing out the problem gets you labeled as a rabble rouser. I hate that empathy has become a bad trait.

The bit about navigating family members transphobia hit home for me. On a day to day basis, one of the hardest things about being trans is navigating cisgender peoples feelings. Its almost impossible to correct pronoun usage in a way that dosen't derail the moment or at worse, make myself the trans person be consitered a "problem starter" or "difficult/uppity". This is especially true for older family/friend for whom this "trans stuff" falls into their generational insecurity and becomes a young vs. Old conflict, instead if just me asking someone to not say he/him because that shit ruins my day.

It's so funny, like why is he even there? What is Dave doing there? He didn't do anything on SNL that night WHY WERE YOU THERE!!

Pedro Pascal and Bad Bunny as Latina Mother and Daughter was my favourite thing about SNL recently. Credit where it’s due to Marcello who’s so promising as a writer and comedian.

I'm reminded of Innuendo Studios' recent illuminating video on a rhetorical tactic he called "Didoing," which inherently begs the question for me about why one party is always tacitly assumed to be the one who "should" or "must" put up with discomfort for the sake of the other, as opposed to the reverse. Why do we as a society tend to assume that one simply "must" quietly suffer Old Uncle Steve because that's just how it be, but hesitate to even imagine that a conservative family should likewise quietly and politely endure the presence and rantings of their ultra-woke purple-haired pansexual non-binary Vegan Millennial second cousin from Cap Hill? Which is to say, why does Bowen Yang have to be the one who necessarily has to tolerate discomfort there?

I'm a med student. One of my fellow students proudly worked as a conversion therapist during her gap year, and I'm on rotation with her now. It's incredibly difficult to show up every day and go through the "all part of the team" motions when I know she's a dangerous bigot with no place in medicine, but saying as much would threaten me more than her.

Chappelle has been dragging the dead body of a friend i knew for a quarter century around for years and used her as a shield. I loathe that man.

I know that when Chappelle hosted earlier that season, Bowen and some other cast members didn't go out for the good night at the end. I wonder if Chappelle was trying to troll them.

Absolutely agree-I think we can all relate to that feeling, and I certainly can’t blame Bowen here. It sucks that any kind of advocacy for ourselves tends to be viewed as being disruptive or antagonistic, even if we’re just defending ourselves. It’s a double standard. Queer people are made to feel bad about it, like a killjoy, while the person who has been transphobic/homophobic isn’t for making queer people feel that way to begin with. Chapelle complains about cancel culture and yet still has specials where he is platformed to complain about being silenced ??? Thanks for all you do!

I just noticed Molly was by Bowen and Sarah, too. They’re initially hidden behind the guy next to Justin Timberlake, but you can seem them, when that guy starts dancing.

Ever since the first special and the tanking of Chappelle's reputation, I always felt that he was getting the "redemption arc" that americans love so much, and that it was gonna go through SNL as part of it. Him being on camera is part of this and it will happen again. So queer folks, brace yourselves, guard your humanity and be prepared.

He claims to support laws that protect queer (inc trans) people - but signal boosts those that do fight against laws and resources to help queer people and for laws that negatively affect queer (especially trans) people.

I can highly relate. In my family, lack of conflict seems to reign supreme. When I've challenged my siblings on misogynistic, homophobic, racist, or transphobic things, they deem me as the one in the wrong for causing the conflict and not backing down. My little sister just came to visit. We had a discussion about our sister in-law, who is Black, banning our younger brother from the wedding because our younger brother used slurs about Black people and she would over hear things he would say or do. My little sister thinks she's in the wrong and that "we wouldn't want to be known for our mistakes." I tried to get her to have empathy about what it is like for something you can't change about yourself and for something that is not even wrong to be, to be spoken about like that. I talked about my own experiences with our brother. He said things about identities I belong to as well. He also said extremely misogynistic things. He hurt me. He never apologized. I let it go, but I don't think he was entitled to that and I did it for my own comfort to exist in my family. I should not have had to, especially since he never apologized or try to make amends for it. I tried to explain those things to her and she just would not try to even see or understand. Outside of my other brother, her husband and maybe my mom (I never talked about it with my mom), I think I am the only one who took my sister in-laws' side. I think my little brother has changed and improved. I don't know for sure. I distanced myself from him for a few years. I didn't live near him. I didn't talk to him for a long time. He didn't ever try to talk to me about it. I just ended up having to pretend nothing ever happened.

She didn't even touch the Legos where is silly wizard eye qnq

I call this kind of priority “keeping the status quo”. It’s exactly that family dinner where they tell the person pointing out the shit is the problem, not the person shitting around them.

I once saw a comedian rip into a woman because she sat on the floor after he told a r*pe joke. She sat on the ground out of protest, but she did it instead of walking out or yelling out so she wouldn’t disrupt the show. And he disrupted his own show to get angry at her for doing nothing but sitting on the ground. It was pretty telling that even though that is not an action that someone would take to protest, he immediately knew what she was doing, exactly what her issue was and what he had done to make her do it. And then it became about whether or not she was right to do something that did not even interrupt a show and whether she was “disrespectful” to a performer who had just told a r*pe joke. Jokes that can cause involuntary and extremely unpleasant physical and neurological responses that can go on for hours in a lot of people.

I think Chappelle's presence also surprised Bowen, if you look at the clip you can see Bowen pointing him out to Sarah Sherman and her looking pretty taken aback. No idea why the dude was onstage as it seems like he didn't work on the episode at all.

I think about this every time NPR does their regular "here's how you reach out and find common ground with people who hate queer people during the holidays" segments.

I can't even count how often i was misgendered and deadnamed the last time i visited family. I couldn't openly say anything, since i knew it would make a scene and i also didn't want that with my 10 year old nephew present. Worst part is that some actually made an effort, but often reverted back to the wrong pronouns and my old name, without even noticing, since other family members used them. All in all: not a great mental health experience, ngl.

To strike a similar chord: there's a LARP version of a particular game(that I shan't name) that had a narrative construct in which POC's where inherently marginalized in a variety of ways that made the LARP format especially vivid in that way; I chose not to participate, and there were several people who just couldn't grasp why, no matter how I tried to explain it to them. On the other hand, when I was around other POC's, all I had to do was mention the game title and the word LARP, and they'd all nod, knowingly....

When I see Dave Chapelle’s face, I think of the statement he made about how come George Floyd was the “face” of BLM, with a certain kind of person saying “why would you choose this guy?” And Dave says: “we didn’t. YOU chose him.” Insightful, right? And then he does the things he does onstage, not realising that this time he was the one that made the choice, when he whines like a little bitch about people calling him out on his shit. “We didn’t choose this situation, Dave. YOU did.” Much love to all brothers, sisters and siblings from an ally (well, I’m not what you’d call “conventionally straight”, I guess, so maybe I’m part of the community) with more still to learn, even in his middle years. Mwah!

Oof. The mention of navigating familial transphobia is reminding me of my sister. When I first told her I was transmasc nonbinary way back when, a few days later she bought me a sleeveless top 'because she knew I could only tolerate (sleeveless) apparel'. The issue? It was a sleeveless *dress* that explicitly came from the women's section, with built in breast liners. I wound up giving it to our mum and thought little of it. Not much later I told her I was going by the name 'V' and this seemed to viscerally upset her. She told me that since I gave her the nickname 'Sissy' back when I was... four? five? that she was going to give me the nickname 'Ari' because she couldn't 'refer to me by the name of a video game character' (CP2077 came out shortly after and we both love the game). At first I took her at face value and agreed to it, even though I was disgruntled by it and told her I felt uncomfortable with it given it's the first three letters of my middle name, which is *also* very feminine. It wasn't until Hogwarts Legacy came out and I tried to tell her why it was so problematic that I realized she didn't see me as *me*. She will use the fact that a friend of ours is a transman to excuse her behavior and that HP meant a great deal to her as it came out when she was 17/18, yet whenever I try to explain to her how hurtful the things she's doing or saying are, she immediately goes on the attack and uses words and terms she is well aware I am uncomfortable with in order to get me to shut down (I'm on the spectrum and cannot handle certain stimuli). I'm still on the fence on how to feel about her, double given I almost never talk to her anymore after the ordeal with Hogwarts Legacy. However, I do not think she's noticed and if she cares, she doesn't show it in any way I understand. I've tried to bring this up to her somewhat recently (past year or so), but it's like she plugs her ears or what I say goes in one and right out the other. She then excuses her behavior with the fact she's 'very left leaning' or 'she does activism' via petitions and I just... do not know what to do anymore. Comment came out way longer than I intended... Suppose this has been weighing on me for a while, pfft.

As a straight person who doesn't always see or know all the LGBTQ people around me it's easy to feel that what you do doesn't matter. I think it's important for us to remember that there are people watching to know if we're safe or not and if you don't stand up when you don't know they're there then a lot of them will never say anything. The Hogwarts legacy thing reminded me of a moment i had that reminded me of that. I was with a group of people who were talking about Hogwarts legacy and I said I hadn't played it because I won't give money to the author. It wasn't really a statement about anything except why I hadn't played the game and I didn't say why because I assumed anyone who cared who would. It turns out that one of the people there was trans. They hadn't said anything about the conversations for all the reasons that people keep quiet. But they jumped in immediately when I said that. It's a pretty good group of people and the conversation mostly just changed without it needing to be a big deal, but I do think it mattered and since then they've discussed several other issues, like wanting surgery but not being able to afford it, that I don't know would have come up if I hadn't said anything when I had no idea anyone was paying attention or would care.

Thank you for this, it was honestly something I really needed to hear. My wife(Who is trans, as am I) has an uncle who has repeatedly expressed very transphobic beliefs, but he's consistently invited over with so many excuses, so much handwaving, because "that's just how he is!". He's a mean-spirited bully, and they know that, but not rocking the boat is more important than my wife and I being uncomfortable with him constantly finding ways to be passive aggressive. We're not asking him to be forbidden from ever seeing or speaking to anyone again, we're asking that he be told to behave, but any time we complain it's reframed as if we're cruelly demanding the former at the expense of everyone else's feelings. It is exhausting, and it gets hard to remember sometimes that we aren't the bad guys for feeling hurt and wanting to be heard and respected.

Five years later, she has yet to build the not lego, not lotr dark lord tower. It has become one with the table.

Bowen is the reason we’re still remotely interested in SNL.

5:41 about comfortability, I believe one of the reasons why the highly controversial, ugly laws, and even that of the dismantling of freak shows, was dismantled, not because of care for those that were affected, but because those on the audience and the general public we believed to not be able to handle it very well. It would’ve gone against their delicate sensibilities, it’s just what you’re making me think of when you talk about someone who is not affected by this who is saying they are affected by it, I hope that makes any sense.

It's interesting that they chose to do that when maybe about a year ago, Molly Kearney (first non-binary cast member) was added to the news segment to give their opinion on the issues of trans and enby folks in current USA, and though tackled with comedy Molly gave their most earnest feelings of fear and anxiety in the short span they were given. Takes me back to the moment Bowen was invited outside of a comedic bit to discuss AAPI hate and the media we consume to support Asian & Pacific Islander creators, so it feels like sometimes SNL does choose their battles wisely.

It is soooo frustrating when transphobic people cry over being called transphobic. And their "argument" is that they are not attacking Trans people physically. Yeah, not all racists wear conical headdresses, and not all misogynists beat their wives. But they are nevertheless racists and misogynists - and transphobes. Thank you again for your lucidity! :)

Bowen Yang, the icon that you are ❤

Looking back, one of the warning signs about Rowling should have been obvious from the first Harry Potter book: The very existence of Slytherin. It implies that everybody should tolerate explicit bigotry in their peers even when it makes minorities feel unsafe.

I respect Bowen so much and I think it means a lot that he’s the first ever Asian regular cast member. I don’t resent him for getting his bag while standing by I’m his morals at least in this instance.

Wanting to build the lego set but constantly getting distracted so the lego just stay out on the table is so relatable 🦋♾️💛 and as always ❤🖖

there's a quote from eduardo galeano in his book "the open veins of latin america" that i feel really speaks to the neoliberal idea of "order" and "comfort". "In a sense the right wing is correct in identifying itself with tranquility and order; it is an order of daily humiliation for the majority, but an order nonetheless; it isa tranquility in which injustice continues to be unjust and hunger continues to be hungry." mind you, he wrote that in 71.

I like to think back to one of the design tenants behind Bugs Bunny, which was that he could never start a fight, but he could finish them. And that was part of why people loved him. A good defense can be a form of offense. Like I know it's a real debate bro kind of thing, but the ideas still stand. That's how you keep people on your side.

Bowen may not have even known that Dave Chappel was there, or was going to be on the stage at the end, until it actually happened and Bowen probably did what he could under those circumstances in the moment.

Totally relatable. This is exactly how I felt last year when I finally left my main friend group of over a decade after enduring this sort of thing for so long, even after I came out to the group. It's terrible to hear this is such a common experience, but I'm glad we're talking about it. I've spent so much time in self-doubt, not knowing what to do when speaking up against hate speech gets me treated like I'm the problem. It's good to know I'm not crazy at least.

I had no idea Dave Chapelle was even there at the end tbh. And now part of me wishes I could unsee that. 😅 Bowen Yang standing off to the side was definitely worth seeing though, cause it reminds me of how detached I feel from my family sometimes when it comes to politics.

I hope these videos over the next year is slowly building the not eye of Sauron one block or two per video

Bowen had his ‘Nancy Pelosi tearing up a speech’ moment. Good for him!

i dunno if it was done purposely or not, but i wish people of snl had more empathy and practiced what they preached.

The cameraman must have been instructed to include him. He was alone, outside the proscenium.

I constantly think about how respectability politics are weaponized, esp against multiply marginalized people. The idea that this act of protest, which is as undisputive as a protest can be, is being scorned speaks volumes about the priorities of society and how we, as queer/trans/(insert other marginalized identity) people, cannot allow ourselves to fall for the trap of politeness. (Edited cuz I noticed a typo that irked me)

Jessie, this is driving me mad - Build the darn Lego set already!!!! Also, kudos to Bowen and jeers to Fallon there hugging Chappelle.

Another time that the Internet breaks when a queer person is noticed breathing wrong in the presence of people non grata. This is almost a non issue, until the internet decided that Bowen was doing too much and not enough at the same time. Leave him alone, Bowen is the one who was caught in a very public situation he didn't want to be, and who couldn't scape or protest. It is so triggering because it reminds me of being in the same room as the predator of the family, usually an older man, and having to skirt around the issue of feeling unsafe and uncomfortable being around somebody who so blatantly exists outside the minimum decency you want to seeing the world. And you are the trouble maker for keeping your distance, because you are supposed to say hi, smile and be amenable because they are family. Smh.

SNL has been quite good. I particularly love Bowen Yang and Ego Nwodin. Hopefully they can keep them but would not be surprised if they both leave soon for bigger and better things.

I don't get why Bowen should be expected to do anything other than what he did. He shouldn't have to leave his job or lose it by making a grand gesture in order to be seen as valid. Why is it his responsibility to do that? And if he had, that's one less queer person on a national screen. I think his response was perfectly calibrated and effective at getting his message across. The people whose actions deserve to be questioned are his fellow cast members, particularly those who interacted positively with Chappelle onstage. I'm disappointed there weren't more of them standing there with Bowen.

Great video! I've been there more than I care to say!

So relatable (especially if the situation involves a family member who is bigoted).

3:29 Lol I had to deal with that recently without getting into details.

Your point here is so spot on. I didn't hear about it, thanks for bringing my attention to it.

I'm just some str8 guy... So I can't fully relate. But you're sooooo good at explaining that feeling. That feeling of when you're the only person in the room who gets it. And the rest are just derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr going along with whatever stupid thing is happening. It's like being the only sober person in the room and some drunk comes up to you, slams his arm on your shoulder and goes, heyyy buddy what's you're problem??? ARENT YOU HAVING FUN?!?!?! And you're just like.... JFC I need to get out of here this place sux azz lol. I dunno, maybe I'm not doing a good job of explaining the feeling... That's what you're for Jessie haha. Shame you're not on SNL it would definitely be more interesting and funnier. I know you have chimed in on some game spot vids before, easily some of the best vids they have put out there! So I gotta say haha, if we're going to live in hellish capitalism, can we at least have folks like you working on the front lines? I like the relatable human tone that lefty folks like you give off in the world of entertainment. The majority of SNL are libbed out libs and it suuux lol.

When I stand up to people spreading misinformation about autism, they often try to shut up those of us autistic people who called them out for treating their kids like a burden or accusing us of not having autism. I hate when neurotypicals tell me I don’t struggle like some autistic without even knowing me and that I do struggle. It’s funny when someone literally bullying you and trying to prevent you from getting help you need if telling you how “easy” your life is. Neurotypicals have to be the center of attention all the time and it’s starting to get to me . All people want is to be treated equally and other people who already get this call it wanting “special privileges “. Because they don’t want anyone else to have the same things they already have. It’s insane

I wonder if Bowen Yang got a talking-to from SNL? And wouldn't Yang have a very strong harassment claim to have Dave Chapelle sprung on him at the end of the show without his knowledge?

"I call this Didoing. Relationship discourse would call it The Tolerable Level of Permanent Unhappiness." -Innuendo Studios

tbh, i feel like this connects to a lot of other minorities. hell, it makes me think about times i've tried to point out antisemitism in leftist spaces only to be told that we need to ignore it for the sake of intersectionality, like what happened when the women's march started supporting farrakhan.

I still haven't finished the previous week's episode on Peacock, I'll catch up soon. What the hell is Mark Cuban doing there?

I can’t wait for your reaction to the SNL 1975 movie they’re going to make.

You make some good points.

Yes! Give me the Jessie rambling!

I see the not lego not LOTR build is going as well as in the prior video 😂

Bowen Yang is incredible.

I love the RITOS sweater ♥

"Bowen Yang, who is the gay cast member of SNL..."

It always amzes me how privileged people say: Oh I don't know much about this, so I can't advocate for this minority x Or they actually want to be an ally and end up doing damage. Or they are doing fine and other privileged people tell them, they shouldn't be allowed to advocate for a minority, since they are not a part of it. In the end, a lot of people expect the minorities to speak up for themselves - which is nothing bad in itself - but at the same time then blame anyone from that minority to be too loud, too sensitive, too disruptive, wanting too much too fast and never happy with what they already achieved. I see this happening to queer people, which I am a part of as well as the black community, or any other minority in this society. We are expected to fight our fights only for ourselves while being tone policed to not do it this much. Just a little sprinkle here and there...

I love Bowen Yang. He is the funniest cast member right now. It’s a shame he isn’t seen by his fellow cast members and employer as deserving of protection from people like Chapelle.

It was pure BS that Chappelle was brought up there. It feels like one of those "good ole boys club" moves boomers pull.

It's sad how relatable this is

I've been an SNL fan since I was a tween. The Groundlings are a big part of the culture where I grew up, and they're kind of a pipeline to SNL (not really, but a lot of SNL cast members have come from The Groundlings). My favorite SNL moments are when the cast is allowed to just get as stupid as they possibly can, like Bill Heder with Stephon, or Kate McKinnon's "lady abducted by aliens," MacGruber, Target Lady, or almost all of the digital shorts Andy Samberg put out with The Lonely Island (especially the Natalie Portman rap). It physically hurts me when people diss SNL, especially when it's become such a "cool kid" thing to do.

Gross to see Fallon being all friendly and affectionate to Dave, KNOWING the harm hes done. But i should hardly be surprised. He was sooooo kind to Trump when he interviewed him in 2016.

Is that the LOTRs Lego set? Eye of Sauron? I love it! ❤ Speaking of Sauron, Chapelle.

Considering who just got announced for their upcoming SNL hosting gig, I wonder how Bowen will react.

Everyone's an ally until it's time to do allyship. Imo the biggest thing allies can do is bystander intervention. Most "allies" can't even do that.

To me Chappelle's out-of-nowhere appearance was made even weirder by his absolutely blank, glazed-over expression. I don't even remember him really interacting with anybody. He kind of looked like HE didn't know why he was there, either.

I discovered recently of the Scottish Highlander McDonald's Bane he's one of the greatest swordman of Scotland in the the 18th century he kind of reminds me of musashi because he too didn't lose a battle so I was told

Lorne Michaels is a corporate droid and emblematic of SNLs success as a comedy institution with more connections than substance. I can't blame a single comedian for wanting to associate themselves with the pedigree of SNL, but I also won't act surprised if Lorne thinks his good ol' boy's club is more important than principles.

thanks for this small bit of info didn't know this happened i wonder why Chapelle was there that day? was he called in to help punch up one of the sketches writing-wise or was he friends with the musical guest that week or something?

What gets me the most is how fickle SNL's relationship with Dave Chappelle. One day they're mocking him for being a transphobe, the next day they're letting him host or waltz on set. It's hard to tell if SNL are actually allies or not. They keep backflipping on where they stand with Dave.

See Innuendo Studios: "Didoing"

There are a couple people in the back on the right who don't look happy and I don't see Michael Che at all

I've had this my whole life. I don't know....