Bowen Yang has had a "radical" impact on SNL by normalizing queer characters on network TV

Slate

Yang, who is set to be promoted to Saturday Night Live's main cast next season after two years as a featured player, is the third out gay male cast member on the NBC institution after Terry Sweeney (1985-1986) and John Milhiser (2013-2014). "Whereas Sweeney never received the chance to expand beyond the limited roles of his debut season, Yang is thriving on the show and constantly expanding his list of characters, from a cocaine-obsessed frat guy, a French Canadian news anchor, and the iceberg that sunk the Titanic," says Michael Boyle. "The iceberg sketch is notable in that, although it’s definitely not the entire joke of the sketch, Yang’s character is clearly, emphatically gay. His amazingly flamboyant iceberg outfit and his makeup, slang, and hand gestures are all queer-coded. None of this is necessary for the joke, exactly, but the specificity with which this character is drawn helps makes the whole thing pop. There were plenty of ways Yang and co-writer Anna Drezen could’ve gone about writing this sketch, plenty of different directions they could’ve gone in that had nothing to do with queer culture. On a network comedy show that has historically prioritized a straight, white, primarily baby boomer audience, this was a bold choice, even if it shouldn’t have been. Yang has received a ton of criticism and online harassment due to choices like these. Although a lot of the homophobia in YouTube video comments or popular Reddit threads related to him is blatant and easy to dismiss, it’s often dressed up as an annoyance about his lack of range. 'Bowen Yang is too … gay,' was the title of one post published on the 'Live From New York' subreddit a year ago. (If you sort the subreddit’s posts by controversial and set the time range to 'all,' this post is the very first thing that shows up.) This argument has persisted throughout Yang’s first two years on the show, despite sketches like 'Murder Durdur' and 'Celebrity Sighting' showing that he’s definitely capable of playing a straight character. Another common critique is that his portrayal of flamboyant characters is offensive and homophobic in itself. This criticism was most prevalent in the aftermath of Shane Gillis being fired from the show in 2019 for using racist and homophobic slurs on his podcast. Gillis’ fans brigaded the SNL subreddit to complain about his treatment from the show, leading to posts like 'Can anyone show me how bowen yang is funny?' in which the poster tried to draw a parallel between Gillis’ use of homophobic slurs and Yang’s use of queer-coded characters, arguing that it was hypocritical for the show to have fired Gillis but not Yang. But portraying a queer male character in a flamboyantly feminine manner isn’t offensive; what’s offensive is the assumption that effeminate men are inherently off-putting, inherently insulting to queer people. The radical nature of Yang’s performance on SNL is not just that he’s normalizing queer characters on network TV, but that he’s normalizing queer men who make no attempts to restrict themselves for a straight audience."