Early on in the pandemic, being able to make people laugh began to take on a new kind of urgency. Providing a release from the uncertainty, stress, sorrow, and trauma of the times was a gift, one the comics of Saturday Night Live took seriously. Cast member Ego Nwodim likens putting on the show then—at first virtually and then in front of limited audiences—to a “call to duty.” But what may have once seemed like a “just for now” way of working has become the new normal.
When we decided on joy as the theme for this issue, we immediately thought of Nwodim, Bowen Yang, and Cecily Strong, three of SNL’s cast members, who in the past year have been responsible for some of the show’s most memorably laugh-out-loud moments. (See Yang as the defensive iceberg who sunk the Titanic; Nwodim as the star of the music video “Loco,” which articulated how we were all feeling: “My brain done broke-o”; and Strong as Goober the Clown, who had an abortion and does “fun clown stuff” to make abortion “more palatable” in the wake of the Texas abortion ban.) Here, they speak about bringing joy to an audience that never needed it more and how they find joy for themselves.
Ego Nwodim: Let’s talk about how we bring each other joy.
Bowen Yang: SNL is a comedy show, and yet everyone is sort of on their own journey at that place. Sometimes it can feel isolating. But the best part of that job is forming these connections. And that translates very well into what ends up being on the show. But then I think what’s more important is just that I have these friends that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
Cecily Strong: And the best kind of friends. Just wonderful people. Another extension of bringing joy to difficult places. Our table reads [script read-throughs] can be kind of tough, and it’s exciting if I see your names on something. It’s like, “Oh, this is going to be good.” No matter what. So that’s joyful, I think.
EN: Yeah. It feels nice to have actual personal relationships with people in the cast. Because especially with a cast this size too, I feel like it would be so easy not to. I’ve had genuine connections with the two of you. And it just feels like a little gift. Some icing on the cake. And sometimes the cake is shit pie.
CS: But when you eat it with friends—
EN: When you eat it with friends, it’s chocolate.
CS: And we all get shit-faced.
BY: I’m going to be really earnest and say that I feel like the difference between joy and happiness is that joy is shared. Joy is something you experience at the same time with other people. I think that happens all the time with the show.
EN: I feel that happiness is a fleeting thing. Like in three minutes, something could take you back to neutral or unhappy. Whereas joy feels more pervasive. There’s a depth to it. Cecily, do you remember the advice you gave us when we joined the cast?
CS: It wasn’t quite advice as much as just a deep heart-to-heart. Ego, I think I just wanted you to know how amazing you were all the time. I was like, “I hope you know that.” Because it’s a hard place. And then to watch you was like, “Okay, never mind. I’m done. Now it’s your time to give me advice.”
EN: I went to Cabo with you my first season. We had, like, minimal conversations about work on that trip. But just to get to see you outside of the SNL space and to have you feel so welcoming in that way, I think, was really special and invigorating. I mean, you even giving me lines in sketches during my first season and having my back in that way … I clocked that and am always really appreciative of it.
CS: I think “Go on vacation” is probably what I gave as advice for, like, seven years.
BY: That’s important advice.
EN: You were like, “Take a vacation as much as you can.” And I, as a workaholic—which isn’t a thing that I say with any sense of pride; it’s quite sick —but to hear something like that was [important]. Like, “Oh, you should actually rest, and you should go somewhere.”
CS: Go feel good.
EN: That was sound advice. You’ve given so much good advice. I’m, like, remembering text messages.
CS: I feel like Kenan [Thompson] was very much in that role for me for a long time. He would text me every Sunday after a show, just as a reminder to say, “You’re great and you’re appreciated if you ever feel underappreciated.” And I like taking that on. It makes me at least feel spiritually justified for being here. That’s, I think, an important legacy that I can control when you can’t control any other.
BY: I also feel like the best advice here comes by example. It’s not even advice. In every way here, Cecily just really sets that.
CS: That’s really sweet. I think it is example. I think I’m just trying to emulate Kenan. I’ve talked to Kenan about it, and he was like, “Amy Poehler was like that for me.” So I think there is that part of SNL too: what we can give to each other that we know we would have liked or did like. I think you guys are both people who do that naturally.
EN: I think you do such a good job, Cecily, making people feel seen who might otherwise feel invisible in that space. Especially in their early years, when you’re trying to get your own footing and being like, “Is anything I’m doing here registering? Are people recognizing me? Do they even understand what I do or what I think is funny?” Those texts you’d send after the table reads, especially in those early years, were so meaningful. Because sometimes you’d walk away from our table reads feeling so depleted or invisible or like a failure or stuck, and to get a text message like that makes you feel seen—like, “Okay. Somebody in that room sees that I’m talented or sees what I’m capable of, sees my effort even.”
BY: When was the first time you felt or knew you could bring joy to others? I can start. I think this is closely tied to knowing that, like, “Oh, making people laugh is something that I enjoy.” And maybe I’m kind of putting the two circles of the Venn diagram in one, but there was a Celine Dion concert that was playing on TV when I was growing up in Montreal, in Canada, and there was this fun, upbeat song. And I think I started to, like, pull my pants down to the rhythm, and my parents and my sister were laughing but being like, “Bowen, no!” I was doing a striptease to a Celine Dion song. And that was the first time I knew.
CS: My parents talk about how every time I got out of the bath, I would do a naked butt-slap dance around the house.
BY: It’s similar. Child nudity.
CS: And dancing.
EN: No nudity for me as a kid. I had a no-nudity clause. I think just mimicking the adults in my family, who I thought were so serious all the time, did it for me because it would make them laugh. I’d be like, “Nothing you’re saying for whatever reason has a use.” Imagine having to raise me. … I do feel for those people. So I would say mimicking the adults in my life, which forced them to laugh at themselves, brought some levity to what might otherwise have been intense situations as a kid.
CS: What do you all want to see more of on SNL?
BY: Oh my gosh. So much. I want to see so much. I want to see just big group musical numbers where everyone does perfect choreo. No, I think the show does a good job right now of having something for everybody, but there’s still stuff that I think we can fill in. There are so many kinds of comedic sensibilities. I mean, my favorite thing about comedy, about “humor,” is that no one can really define it. And so I feel like there’s always going to be room for more and always room for more points of view.
EN: Yeah. I’m looking forward to seeing the show expand in a way that reflects society and what society looks like. The demographics of society. I also selfishly, as a consumer and a performer, want to see more of those two-handers [scenes with just two people], Cec, that you’ve mentioned.
BY: Yes!
EN: I want more two-handers with the women.
CS: Female two-handers. You’re one of the best writers on the show, Ego. You know I say this to you, but I really mean it. What’s insane is that especially, I feel, when people are in the cast—especially with women in the cast—a lot of people just assume we don’t write for ourselves.
EN: Yeah, I feel like anytime someone says to me, “Oh, so do you write on the show? Do you write your own stuff?” or “Oh, you wrote that? You should do some more writing at the show,” I’m basically like, “Fuck you.” So, yeah … two-hander female stuff. [And] during the pandemic, showing up, even with those at-home episodes, which I feel we’re removed from at this point and isn’t so much the conversation in general … but showing up last season in such an uncertain time—it felt really special and purposeful to have people respond the way they did. Because I know we were also having our own human experience of the time and what was going on in the world.
BY: I know.
EN: It just sort of felt like a call to duty. To feel like anything you’re doing is impactful in helping people in any way feels so good and incredibly joyous. I do feel really privileged to be able to show up in that way. And then, selfishly, still being able to enjoy myself and see my friends and get to work alongside such wonderful, talented, kind people—just that thought brings me joy. And when things get hard, it’s nice to stop and remember that this is all good and it’s all beautiful.
BY: I always think about how lucky we are. In any work environment, hopefully, there are some moments of joy, little moments that people just sort of recognize each other or something and laugh. And the fact that we get to do that with people watching, and sharing that with an audience, that is something that I will always be grateful for. Am I making sense?
CS: Yes. I think jobs aren’t particularly great right now. And we are so lucky to have this one. I feel so much anxiety all the time when I think about it. It feels like there’s anxiety in the air. There’s a lot of anger, frustration, anxiety that feels like it’s about to blow. And so it feels very good, for me, to escape it. Because it is a moment where it’s like, “We’re okay. We’re going to be okay.” And to get to share that. Like, “Hey, step off the pedal for a minute. Come laugh at a fart joke or something. Feel good for a second. Let us connect in this way.”
Hair and Makeup (Ego Nwodim): Elliot Simpson and Merrell Hollis for Shiseido; Hair and Makeup (Cecily Strong): Joseph C. Whitmeyer for R+Co and Joanna Pisani for NARS Cosmetics; Grooming (Bowen Yang): Melissa Dezarate for Oribe
This article originally appeared in the February 2022 issue of Harper’s BAZAAR, available on newsstands February 1.
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Source: Filipino Journal Articles
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