When a cast member leaves Saturday Night Live, fans want to know why. I mean, that seems like a dream job, right? You make jokes with celebrities every episode? But sometimes, it is just the right move for the performer, and we have to respect that.
Punkie Johnson joined Saturday Night Live in 2020 as a featured player and became a main cast member in 2022, but it shocked fans when Johnson announced she wouldn’t be returning for Saturday Night Live’s 50th season. But when news broke that Johnson was leaving, many fans connected Johnson’s departure to the news that Maya Rudolph would be returning to the series to play Kamala Harris in sketches.
Johnson has made it clear that had nothing to do with it. On the Fly on the Wall podcast, she talked to the former SNL alums David Spade and Dana Carvey about the decision and how she wanted to leave before the 49th season aired: “I talked to my team. I was like, ‘Look, I don’t really know if I belong at this job, so maybe I should step away.”
She explained that she wanted out, but her team convinced her to stay another season and it gave her a boost of confidence. But ultimately, it wasn’t enough for her to stay. “I think I got like three or four sketches [in the] first half. And usually, I only get maybe two or three on the entire season, so I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’m killing it. Like, this is my season.’”
But Johnson’s decision to leave came down to writer Ben Silva leaving the show and Johnson feeling like she didn’t have someone at SNL who understood her humor. She said that Silva “just knew how to speak Punkie,” and without him, it wasn’t working for her. “So if I was telling him something, he knew how to put it in SNL format for me. If I try to put it in SNL format, that’s the hard part.”
Johnson didn’t feel like she fit in
One of the things that makes Saturday Night Live special is the cast and their relationships, but the show is more than that, too. You have to find your comedic bit, and Johnson explained that her stand-up background didn’t necessarily help her in writing sketches.
“I didn’t really feel like I fit, like I didn’t feel like that was my zone. That show is for a different type of person,” she said. “I came from stand-up, so I just thought everybody else came from stand-up. I started having conversations with people and everybody was like, ‘Oh yeah, we went to school for this.’ I’m like, y’all went to school to be here?”
Don’t worry though, this isn’t going to be the last time we see Johnson. She shared with Spade and Carvey that she has had plenty of people reaching out to her about opportunities since leaving the show. “Ever since word got out that I’m not going back to the show, my phone and opportunities have not stopped,” she said. “It’s crazy.”
Published: Aug 23, 2024 02:58 pm