Lorne Michaels won't free Bowen Yang from his JD Vance curse

Please, Lorne, put down the popcorn and call Zach Galifianakis.

By Matt Schimkowitz | April 13, 2025 | 2:26pm

Photo by: Will Heath (NBC)

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Lorne Michaels won't free Bowen Yang from his JD Vance curse

Bowen Yang finds himself in a monkey’s paw situation. Yang has scaled the comedy mountain, becoming an SNL break-out who stars in well-funded indies, like his latest, The Wedding Banquet, and the most successful Wizard Of Oz prequel of all time. Yet, no matter how powerful and successful he becomes, he’s still stuck playing a public figure known to some as “a little pig man” on Saturday Night Live. That’s not for lack of trying. His boss, Lorne Michaels, won’t free him from the JD Vance curse. Appearing on The Daily Show last week, Yang did his best to get the word out about his station, which sounds borderline torturous. If laws still existed, surely it would be illegal to ensnare someone in the JD Vance headspace for weeks at a time?

Understandably, it’s been a struggle for Yang. After being asked to play the Vice President known for saying he’d lie to the public about immigrants to sell his platform, Yang says he pleaded with Michaels to free him from this cruel and unusual punishment. “Lorne asked me, and I said, ‘Please, please, please don’t make me do this,'” Yang said. Still, Yang is nothing but professional and says he “really” does his “best with him,” but “every time I have to play him, I go to Lorne and I say, ‘You can do a buyback. You don’t have to stick with me.’ Please reach out to Zach Galifianakis. Please reach out to Taran Killam. But no, that’s my charge.”