Top 33 Bowen Yang Quotes

I thought going in that I had to have this very broad, very palatable sensibility that works for everybody, but then the stuff that I’m the most proud of, and probably even got the most success from, was outwardly an expression of queerness or gayness. That’s been a nice surprise.

No, broadly speaking there is no average age in comedy, which is very refreshing. Any stress over success vis-a-vis age in comedy is just a matter of giving up short-term gains in favor of the long haul.

I feel like ‘SNL’ is this kind of fixed, refractive prism. And whatever comes through it is just whatever – is just the absurdity of what’s going on in the world or what people are saying or what’s not being said.

I used to be very anti-bath.

Pandemic life has turned me into a freak for baths, and my process is involved enough to make it fun. I pour in some bubble bath, add a pouch of Japanese onsen powder, and place some candles around the bathroom for ambiance.

I texted one of the writers I said, ‘I have this crazy idea, I think I have to play Fran Lebowitz on Update.’ The next day, Anna Drezen, our head writer, texted me, ‘Crazy idea, but I think you should play Fran Lebowitz on Update.’

Just classic immigrant story – I mean, child of immigrant story – did not grow up with cable and so felt constantly like I was being spoken to in a foreign language when I would go to school. And people would be like, did you watch this? Did you watch that? I’d be like, no, but I did watch ‘SNL.’

I want to have two suitcases full of hair extensions by the time I’m 40.

I wouldn’t have been born if my parents had stayed in China. Which is kind of funny. But it also just kind of fills me with this existential dread.

I was the kid who at 12 years old went to NBC studio tours, and I would just answer all these trivia questions on the tour that the pages would ask about ‘SNL’. I was that kid.

The way I see queerness now is that, best case scenario, another queer person reflects it back at you. Worst case scenario, which is what happened to me, is having people say, Well, you like Michelle Branch, so you must be gay.’

There’s this joke that Anna Drezen wrote for Melissa Villasenor, where Melissa plays every teen-girl murder suspect on Law & Order.’ And there’s this joke in there that is like, We stabbed her as a joke, but she took it the wrong way and started bleeding!’

Stop letting Grey’s Anatomy’ fool you into doing pre-med.

I think any gay comedian will acknowledge the fact that he or she is gay – it’s not a coincidence, it’s deeply who they are.

I was anticipating Animal Crossing.’ I was an early adopter. And then I was really, really looking forward to it coming out even before lockdown happened. And then, of course, everyone sort of glommed on to it. And I embrace that. That’s the whole point of the game. You want to build a community through this video game.

I’m not setting too many expectations for myself. I’m just trying to create opportunities for something interesting.

This is what gay nightlife is: It’s about building an image. You are constantly in proprioception where you’re clocking your own movement through space constantly.

There’s some humility that has to be constant. And if I ever put pressure on myself to represent in any meaningful way for Asian people, then that would just get in my way in terms of thinking that I am destined to speak on behalf of multiple people.

I always end up making friends at Pride and like, I see them throughout the year, but then you always have that nice, fond memory of, ‘Oh my goodness I saw that person at this march, or this event.’

When I watched The Outs,’ I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is just such a great, grounded, lived-in story about people my age living where I happen to live.’

I’ve fully turned a corner in terms of thinking about my own voice. I think I have a pretty cool voice, just sonically.

I thought of myself as a very goal-oriented person. The more I’ve aged, the more I’m like, well, maybe I’m not that ambitious.

Podcasts feel about as accessible and ubiquitous as books or articles or anything like that.

And I would go on all these college tours. And I was thinking about where I would want to go. And at the end of each tour, I’d be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you guys have any improv groups?’

I loved ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’

I think the whole glue of Search Party’ is this idea of victimhood.

I was going through this identity crisis of being like, ‘I don’t think I want to be a doctor anymore.’ And, ‘oh my god, have I made a huge mistake? What do I do?’

I feel like doing Las Culturistas’ for an extended period of time has taught me where to put the fulcrum on having structure and having looseness.

I think there is gay comedy, because I think most gay comics are very very very in touch with that identity.

Margaret Cho is definitely one of the people, like just watching or hearing her stand up back in the days when stand-up albums were pretty prolific. Seeing her in Carnegie Hall was pretty revolutionary for me to be like, ‘Oh, this Asian person talking about her sexuality.’

I don’t get too, like, you know, freaked out or nervous around famous people. But for some reason, Yvonne Orji is just one of those people where I’m like, I’m too – I would be too nervous to meet her.

When I go to Fire Island, it’s always sort of the same thing. Everyone is coexisting, and isn’t that nice? But also, the risk of people co-opting what is a queer invention is okay, as long as it’s not for capital.

I wonder if there’s space to queer the nomenclature in fitness. Maybe we call a goblet squat a Dannii Minogue instead? Just an idea.