The Moment
Bowen Yang didn’t just leave Saturday Night Live – he clocked out of Studio 8H like it was his last shift on Earth.
In his final sketch, as reported in a Dec. 21 piece from TMZ and seen in the season’s mid-year episode, Bowen plays a Delta One Lounge employee working his very last day. The metaphor is not subtle, and that’s the point. This is farewell theater.
On screen, he gets a call from Ariana Grande – his Wicked co-star and longtime SNL musical guest – and they reminisce about all the “eggnog” he’s made over the years, a winky stand-in for the sketches and characters he’s poured himself into during his seven seasons on the show. Then the two break into a duet of Charles Brown’s 1960 classic, “Please Come Home for Christmas.”
As the scene builds, Bowen’s character talks about how lucky he feels to have worked in this fictional lounge, insisting how much he loves “every single person who works here, especially my boss.” It’s basically his goodbye speech to SNL in disguise, and he fully breaks down in tears while saying it.
The “boss” turns out to be Cher, playing the “CEO of Eggnog at Delta,” dropping comic relief in the middle of the sobfest. When Bowen’s character nervously asks for feedback, Cher jokes that everyone thought he was “a little bit too gay,” before landing the line with, “But you know what? You’re perfect for me.”
The sketch ends with more singing, more crying, and a group hug between Bowen, Ariana, and Cher. Hours earlier, Bowen had already posted a written goodbye to SNL on social media, thanking his coworkers and singling out creator Lorne Michaels, according to TMZ. Then he took his final bow at Studio 8H, leaving mid-season for reasons that have not been publicly explained.
Bowen Yang Confirms Exit from ‘Saturday Night Live’ https://t.co/saTT8YxKee pic.twitter.com/3JRIZS1NjN
— TMZ (@TMZ) December 20, 2025
The Take
I’ll say it: this is the most on-brand SNL goodbye we’ve seen in years – part heartfelt, part camp, part airport lounge fever dream.
Bowen’s exit hits differently because his whole run on SNL has felt like a rebuttal to the old “play it straight or don’t play at all” rules of late-night comedy. He became famous for being very specifically himself: queer, Asian American, a little surreal, and not remotely interested in shrinking to fit anyone else’s comfort level.
So of course his final sketch leans into all of that. He’s not slipping quietly out a side door; he’s turning the exit into a musical number with Ariana Grande and Cher and a line about being “too gay” that lands like both a joke and a thesis statement.
It’s also very modern SNL. The show used to quietly rotate players in and out; now, big cast departures play like series finales for individual characters. We’ve seen it before with Kristen Wiig’s Rolling Stones goodbye, Kate McKinnon’s alien-abduction farewell, and now Bowen’s first-class lounge of feelings.
If you’ve ever watched your favorite bartender work their last Friday night, that’s what this sketch felt like. Everyone knows it’s over; no one wants to go home yet; the regulars show up; the vibe is half-party, half-funeral. Bowen is the bartender who stayed late, cleaned the bar, hugged every patron, then cried in the walk-in fridge.
There’s also something quietly radical about Cher delivering that “too gay” line on network TV and turning it into a blessing, not a warning. A decade ago, that joke would have been played at a queer cast member’s expense; here, it’s the universe saying, you were never the problem.
As for the mid-season timing? We don’t know why he’s leaving right now, and we don’t need to fill in the blanks. What we do know is that between Emmy nominations, movie roles like Wicked, and a well-defined voice, Bowen is graduating from repertory player to full-on brand. SNL was the launchpad; this sketch was the soft landing.
Receipts
Confirmed:
- Bowen Yang appeared in a farewell-themed Delta One Lounge sketch alongside Ariana Grande and Cher on a recent Saturday Night Live episode, where his character works his last shift and becomes emotional (as seen in the NBC broadcast).
- During the sketch, he and Ariana Grande performed “Please Come Home for Christmas,” and Cher played his boss, the “CEO of Eggnog at Delta,” delivering a joke that others thought he was “a little bit too gay” before reassuring him he was perfect (described in detail in TMZ’s Dec. 21, 2025 report).
- Bowen posted a written goodbye to SNL on social media earlier that same day, thanking coworkers and Lorne Michaels by name, according to the same TMZ report.
- He joined SNL as a writer in 2018, became a cast member in 2019, and has received five Primetime Emmy nominations – one for writing and four for supporting actor in a comedy series (per award records summarized in the TMZ piece and prior Emmy listings).
- His departure is happening mid-season, and no official reason has been publicly announced as of the TMZ report.
Unverified / Open Questions:
- Why exactly Bowen chose to exit mid-season – no public explanation from him, NBC, or SNL has been released.
- Whether this farewell sketch marks a permanent end to his SNL appearances, or if he might return as a host or cameo guest in future seasons.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
If you haven’t kept track of the newer SNL era, Bowen Yang is the sharp, deadpan comic who helped drag the show into the 2020s. Hired as a writer in 2018 and bumped to the cast in 2019, he quickly became a standout with characters like the iceberg that sank the Titanic and a range of gloriously over-it desk pieces on “Weekend Update.” He is one of the few Asian American cast members in the show’s nearly 50-year history and one of its most prominent openly gay male performers. Along the way, he racked up multiple Emmy nominations and roles in films and TV, including the big-screen musical Wicked alongside Ariana Grande.
What’s Next
Bowen hasn’t laid out a detailed next-steps manifesto yet, at least not publicly. But the tea leaves are pretty clear: between film work, stand-up, and his existing fanbase, he’s not fading into obscurity.
We can probably expect more projects that lean into what this SNL exit crystallized – unapologetic queerness, sharp character work, and that oddly specific ability to make even a fake airport lounge feel like a real goodbye party.
For SNL, his departure raises the usual questions. Who picks up the kind of roles he owned – the heightened, stylish, very-online characters? Will the show bring in another queer and/or Asian performer to keep the cast from feeling like a step backward in representation? Those casting decisions in the next season or two will say a lot.
In the meantime, this final sketch is going to live online forever, replayed every time another cast member leaves in tears. It’s a perfect little time capsule of this SNL era: emotional, self-aware, and just campy enough to stop you from totally falling apart.
How did Bowen’s tearful, star-filled goodbye land for you – moving, a little too much, or exactly the kind of big gesture a modern SNL exit deserves?
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