Saturday Night Live cast member Bowen Yang has been forced to clarify his stance on pop star Chappell Roan following his sketch embodying a Moo Deng and Chappell Roan hybrid character. If that sounds like gibberish to you, don’t worry, I’ll explain.
This week, 33-year-old Yang performed a sketch where he embodied Moo Deng — the extremely damp, bouncy, viral chaos hippo who is currently capturing hearts around the world for her chaotic antics. Although he was wearing a hippo costume and getting sprayed in the face with a hose à la our viral queen, the sketch was also referencing Chappell Roan’s viral video on TikTok where she issues a scathing smackdown to her “creepy” fans.
The comparison was pretty fitting, considering both divas had a meteoric rise to fame and sadly experienced harassment because of it.
You can catch Yang’s sketch below.
Personally I thought it was a clever take on two of the hottest It-girls in the zeitgeist right now referencing the absolutely bonkers nature of their rise to fame. While Moo Deng’s fans were seemingly cool with it, Chappell’s were not.
Fans took to social media to share this disapproval of the sketch, sharing that they felt it was disrespectful to Chappell Roan amidst the mental health struggles she’s been facing from her mass exposure in the public eye.
The backlash to the sketch was so intense that Yang took to his Instagram Stories on Monday (local time) to address his intentions behind the sketch.
“Oh geeez. ‘mocks’ ??? if my personal stance and the piece aren’t absolutely clear in terms of supporting her then there it is I guess,” the comedian wrote.
“Everything she has ever asked for has been reasonable and even then we can connect it to another story about boundaries or whatever.
“Needing the hose rn,” he concluded, referencing his sketch.
In August this year, Yang and Chappell Roan got together for a chat for Interview Magazine. During the conversation, the pair spoke about what it was like to suddenly be a queer person in the public eye with Yang even giving Chappell Roan advice.
“Anytime someone is like, ‘Wow, it’s all happening so fast, like, how do you feel?’ That’s only reinforcing the sense of overwhelm,” he told her.
“So if you can tune that out — not me giving you advice right off the fucking bat like I’m an elder.”
“I appreciate the advice,” she responded.
“I don’t know anyone who’s going through this, personally. The biggest thing has been getting recognized, and just feeling not myself. And touring, it’s all-consuming.
“I’ve never given a fuck about the charts or being on the radio, but it’s so crazy how industry people are taking me more seriously than before. I’m like, ‘I’ve been doing this the whole time, bitch.'”
Despite copping some serious heat for the sketch, some fans think that the backlash is a sign that fan culture has gone too far, with Chappell’s fans blindly supporting her and ultimately missing the point of the sketch.
I think we can all agree that the harassment Chappell Roan has experienced is awful and she has every right to make her boundaries crystal clear. But at the end of the day, this sketch isn’t making fun of Chappell Roan or her lived experience — it’s laughing at the mass viral, zeitgeist culture that allowed her to be put in that position in the first place.
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