Clearing the air.
Bowen Yang told Variety that he didn’t intentionally distance himself from controversial comedian Dave Chappelle on “Saturday Night Live” in January.
During the episode hosted by Dakota Johnson, Chappelle, 50, made an unexpected appearance during the good night segment.
Yang, 33, stood on the opposite side of the stage from Chappelle with his arms folded.
But the openly gay “Fire Island” star clarified exactly why he wasn’t near Chappelle, who has used anti-trans jokes in his comedy.
“I stand where I always stand on good nights,” said Yang in the June 5 interview.
“It was not a physical distance that anyone was creating,” he continued. “It had to do with so many things that were completely internal.”
When asked if he was unhappy about Chappelle’s appearance on the show, Yang said: “It was about other people’s response in the show. I was just confused, that was it.”
Yang’s co-star Kenan Thompson told Variety it was “jarring” that the moment made headlines, and that “everyone” was confused by Chappelle’s cameo when he wasn’t involved in the rest of the episode.
Chappelle made headlines in 2021 after he spoke out about transgender issues in his Netflix special “The Closer,” coming to the defense of “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who has been accused of being transphobic.
His comments sparked a massive employee walkout at Netflix as well as protests.
He hosted “SNL” the following year and was slammed for his opening monologue, where he dove into the antisemitism from Kanye West and Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving
“I’ve probably been doing this for 35 years now and early in my career I learned there are two words in the English language you should never say together in sequence and those words are ‘The’ and ‘Jews,’” he said on the show in November 2022. “I never heard someone do good after they said that.”
The head of the Anti-Defamation League released a statement blasting Chappelle for his comments.
“We shouldn’t expect @DaveChappelle to serve as society’s moral compass, but disturbing to see @nbcsnl not just normalize but popularize #antisemitism,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said, adding, “Why are Jewish sensitivities denied or diminished at almost every turn? Why does our trauma trigger applause?”
Chappelle caused controversy again in December 2023 with his Netflix special “The Dreamer.”
He joked about trans and disabled people, which sparked further fan backlash.
He also revisited transgenderism in “The Dreamer,” saying that he was “trying to repair my relationship with the transgender community ’cause I don’t want them to think that I don’t like them.”
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