Bowen Yang has had plenty of time to get inside the mind of Vice President JD Vance, playing him week in and week out on "Saturday Night Live." The comedian has learned from his hillbilly parodies: Vance definitely caused the death of Pope Francis.
Yang dropped a bombshell joke on the hosts of "The View" on Thursday, turning from his apprehensions over playing the veep to say in no uncertain terms that the pope is dead and it's Vance's fault.
The quip came up during a rapid-fire rundown of recent "SNL" controversies, including spats with Aimee Lou Wood and Morgan Wallen's post-show huff. When the hosts asked Yang about Vance, he first shared that he was worried he wasn't a fit for the role.
"I just thought there would be better people for it," Yang said. "It was my impostor syndrome, I was like, there are better people than this. I worked with an accent coach, I had to get it between Ohio and Appalachia with the accent. It's hard, it's very subtle!"
When the hosts complimented his turn as Donald Trump's second-in-command, Yang unloaded.
"Thank you, I mean, look, the guy's a pope killer, okay?" he said, causing the audience and hosts to erupt.
Vance flew to Vatican City for a visit with the Pope over the weekend. He was initially brushed off by Pope Francis, who instead had church higher-ups talk to the vice president about migrants and refugees. Vance was granted a brief meeting with Francis on Easter Sunday and Francis' passing was announced the next day.
The timing led many on the internet to joke that the death of the pope was Vance's fault, a meme of which Yang is no doubt aware.
Watch the entire interview with Yang below:
