Thanks to Bowen Yang, Cecily Strong and Ego Nwodim, the laughs on Global‘s “Saturday Night Live” just keep coming.
The three sat down with Harper’s Bazaar to discuss creating comedy at the height of the pandemic, during a time filled with stress.
Speaking of what joy means to him, Yang said, “I’m going to be really earnest and say that I feel like the difference between joy and happiness is that joy is shared. Joy is something you experience at the same time with other people. I think that happens all the time with the show.”
Strong seconded Yang’s comments of joy on set.
“I feel so much anxiety all the time when I think about it. It feels like there’s anxiety in the air,” Strong said. “There’s a lot of anger, frustration, anxiety that feels like it’s about to blow. And so it feels very good, for me, to escape it. Because it is a moment where it’s like, ‘We’re okay. We’re going to be okay.’ And to get to share that. Like, ‘Hey, step off the pedal for a minute. Come laugh at a fart joke or something. Feel good for a second. Let us connect in this way.’”
Strong also touched on how Kenan Thompson mentored her on the show.
“He would text me every Sunday after a show, just as a reminder to say, ‘You’re great and you’re appreciated if you ever feel underappreciated.’ And I like taking that on. It makes me at least feel spiritually justified for being here. That’s, I think, an important legacy that I can control when you can’t control any other,” she explained.
Like her castmates, Nwodim agreed how ” incredibly joyous” it is to work on the show.
“When things get hard, it’s nice to stop and remember that this is all good and it’s all beautiful,” Nwodim said.
But something all the cast goes through, but particularly the women, is the misconception that they don’t write their own material.
“Yeah, I feel like anytime someone says to me, ‘Oh, so do you write on the show? Do you write your own stuff?’ or ‘Oh, you wrote that? You should do some more writing at the show,’ I’m basically like, ‘F**k you,’” Nwodim added.
The full article with Bowen, Strong and Nwodim appears in the February Joy issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
“Saturday Night Live” airs Saturdays at 11:29 p.m. ET on Global.
