Bowen Yang Reflects on Quitting TikTok Over Asian Jokes: ‘I Hate the Internet Because of That’

Bowen Yang is tired of seeing the same old joke.

The “Saturday Night Live” star revealed during the latest episode of his “Las Culturistas” podcast that TikTok fans continue to tag him in posts about totally unrelated people who also happen to be Asian.

“TikTok, or at least my experience…is that I connect on and 20 of my notifications are about someone thinking they’re cute, tagging me and saying, “Oh my God.” This person looks like Bowen Yang,’” he said in the latest episode of the podcast.

“She’s an Asian person. It’s a little Asian baby dancing in a little elephant costume,” Yang continued. “Trust me. I saw it. You can stop tagging me in this. No, thanks. It doesn’t make me want to use the platform.

Yang has co-hosted his podcast with Matt Rogers since 2016 and was brought on as an “SNL” writer two years later. He became the first Chinese-American actor in 2019.

“I guess it’s not going to go away,” he said on the podcast. “I guess I have to accept this as part of my life. But there are even still Asians making jokes about Joel Kim Booster, which are gross.

Many fans have commented over the years that Yang and his former “Fire Island” co-star look similar, even though Booster, who is Korean-American, has a much more athletic build and a completely different face. Yang said it was “a weird thing and I hate the Internet because of it.”

“I think it’s a great reason to leave,” he said.

Still, Yang attributed much of the offensive to ignorance rather than malice, and said many fans “don’t see a lot of Asians in their daily lives”, prompting them to immediately think of Yang when they see another Asian person online. .

It remains to be seen whether he will actually stop using TikTok or social media in general. But the 34-year-old has his hands full, as he recently starred in the film adaptation of “Wicked” alongside Ariana Grande.

In a conversation with Interview Magazine last week, Yang lamented having to travel back and forth between New York and London every week to film his scenes in the box office hit – but said: ‘It’s an honor of my life making this movie and ‘SNL’. ‘ at the same time.”