-Our next guest is an Emmy-nominated actor
and comedian you know from the film "Fire Island"
and shows like "Awkwafina is Nora from Queens"
and, of course, "Saturday Night Live,"
which airs this Saturday on NBC and is streamed live on Peacock
with host Michael B. Jordan and musical guest Lil Baby.
Please welcome back to the show our friend Bowen Yang!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome back! -Hey!
Thank you! -I was just saying to our
last guest that you are -- this is, for real,
you're a big Alex Wagner fan. -Huge Alex Wagner fan.
I think she just --
She filled in that role in "The Mole" so well.
And, like, it's -- it's perfect.
Like, she has that mid-aughts Anderson Cooper vibe about her.
-Yeah. -And she, like, you know,
is cool, really good at talking to everybody,
could be a Vanderbilt. You don't know.
[ Laughter ]
-Now, Anderson Cooper's version of "The Mole,"
this was a very important show to you.
-Yes, it was very important to me and my sister.
We just moved to the U.S. from Canada.
It was one of the first shows we watched.
And it was riveting television.
My sister loved it so much that she themed
her 12th birthday party after "The Mole."
[ Laughter ]
And, like, had her own game of "The Mole."
And I was, like, on the side, P.A.'ing the whole thing.
[ Laughter ]
I was, like, whispering into people's --
these girls' ears, like, "Okay. Like, so we're gonna go
into elimination now, and someone's gonna leave,
and it's gonna be okay."
I was running the whole show. I was the P.A.
I was producing the whole thing. [ Laughter ]
It was amazing. -Did you have to -- Did you ever
get to tell people, "It's time for you to leave the party"
or anything like that? -i think I did
the Alex Wagner thing, which is she walks the people
to their car. [ Laughter ]
And I think I just walked them over to the living room, yeah.
-You have a wonderful podcast called "Las Culturistas,"
about pop culture. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Oh, my gosh. Really? -What is --
-Wow. -i should say,
with your great host, Matt Rogers.
-Yes. -Two of you are fantastic.
-Oh, my God, the best. -What's big in pop culture
right now that we're not talking about?
-Are you ready to hear this, everybody?
-Yeah. [ Cheers ]
-And I'm not just saying this as an employee of NBC Universal.
But the most happening thing in pop culture right now is...
Peacock! It's Peacock.
-It's Peacock? -It's Peacock.
You got "The Traitors."
You have every "Real Housewives,"
including "The Real Housewives of Miami,"
which is currently the best franchise.
-Okay, great. -Because it features
Lenny Hochstein, the boob god of Miami.
-Okay, the boob god.
-He gives every woman a boob job in Miami.
-Okay. Whether they want it or not.
-Whether they want it or not. [ Laughter ]
Compulsory boob jobs, which is a DeSantis policy.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Sorry. But, like, it's --
But he cheated on his wife, Lisa,
who's one of the housewives, and now he's currently
the most hated man on television, I think.
-And we're all rooting for Lisa?
-Hugely rooting for Lisa. She is --
He tried to kick her out of their house with the kids.
And she was like, "No, I'm staying,
and I'm raising these two children."
She's amazing. Lisa Hochstein, I'm with you.
I support you. [ Laughter ]
-That's very nice of you. -Love her, love her.
-Of course, another thing --
Again, this is not brand crossover.
But another thing of course you can watch on Peacock is "SNL."
-"SNL." -You had double duty
as George Santos. -Yes.
-You did him on "Update" and in the cold open.
-And in the cold open. [ Cheers and applause ]
-So good you did him twice. Now, was this --
Did you have, in the back of your head,
as this sort of George Santos story was building,
did you think, "I'm the guy to play it"?
-i didn't think so because I was kind of just
not sure what his deal was,
like any of us, like, weren't sure.
[ Laughter ] But, um...
What if I just came on the show right now to be like,
"I believe him." [ Laughter ]
-"Like, I lived as him for a night."
-Yes! -"I believe him."
-"I believe the guy." [ Laughter ]
No, but I just, like -- I was like, "Oh, he has glasses,
and he, um -- you know, we both have, like,
a gross nasally voice." [ Laughter ]
"So, like, maybe I'm the guy?" And so, I asked around.
And then we, like, wrote this "Weekend Update" feature
with Alison Gates and Kent Sublette.
And then they added him in the cold open on Friday night.
I was like, "This is gonna be overkill."
But he is overkill, so it all worked out.
-Is it weird impersonating someone who is clearly
always trying to be a different person, as well?
-Yes. Yes! Right?
Like, because you can't get, like, a hold on him as a --
You're like, "Who is this guy?" And like, even the way he talks,
I think, is a little, like -- I mean, like --
He's either, like, freshly had the lip filler in,
and he's, like, not enunciating his words right,
or he's just talking about
how he "slayed Harvard and Yale" in volleyball.
You're like, "What is this guy's deal?"
-You played another one that must have been fun
because you didn't obviously have to look at tape
to be accurate to the actual person.
-Right, right. -What's his name again?
-This is Krampus. -Krampus.
-This is Krampus, the famous Bavarian
Christmas mythological figure. -Yeah.
-He is just a little burnt out. -Yeah, it was really --
it was one of those wonderful "Update" features
where your attitude and vibe did not match the costuming at all.
-Right, right. -And I should note,
when you came out, you had two horns, and one horn fell off.
-Yes. -And I'm gonna say this,
and this is not -- this is no small praise.
This may be one of my favorite costume malfunctions.
Because both you and Colin -- I give praise to both.
Both of you really rolled with it in a very nice way.
-Yeah. Well, I should say that I anticipated some malfunction,
because right before I get rolled off, the horn falls off.
-Okay. -And I'm like, "Wow.
I better come up with something in case this happens again."
And -- it's like I almost, like, preempt it.
Like, I say that -- I was just basically, "Oh, no, I'm sick."
And then Colin was like, "You have horn sickness."
[ Laughter ]
And -- kind of -- the words leave my mouth
right as it falls, as if I, like, willed it to happen.
[ Laughter ] So, I don't know.
It's like a premeditated costume mishap.
-Yeah, and, no, I really appreciate
that you guys rolled through it. -Yes.
-You did not make it all about the horn sickness,
but it was a very nice moment. -Yeah.
-I have a lot more questions.
We'll be back with more from Bowen Yang, everybody!