“Saturday Night Live” Alumni David Spade And Dana Carvey Just Reacted To Bowen Yang’s Revelation About A Celebrity Host Making “Multiple Cast Members Cry”

“Some people deal with stress by lashing out and being kind of overly angry.”

By
Stephanie Soteriou
by Stephanie Soteriou

BuzzFeed Staff

Last month, Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang revealed that a celebrity host once made “multiple cast members cry” in the lead-up to the live show.

Bowen Yang at the BAFTA TV Tea Party, wearing glasses, a shirt, and a dark jacket with a subtle pattern, in front of a step-and-repeat backdrop
Kevin Winter / Getty Images for BAFTA

Bowen teased the drama during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, when host Andy Cohen asked him: “Without naming names, what is the worst SNL host behavior you have witnessed?”


“Oh my gosh,” Bowen exclaimed, clearly taken aback. He then revealed: “This man, this person, this host made multiple cast members cry.”


“On Wednesday, before the table read, because he hated the ideas,” Bowen clarified. “Terrible.”

And Bowen discussed the situation some more during a recent appearance on SNL alumni Dana Carvey and David Spade’s podcast, Fly on the Wall.

Dana Carvey, in a leather jacket, and David Spade, in a coat, smile while posing together at a Netflix event
Jerod Harris / Getty Images for Netflix

For reference, Dana starred in the NBC series from 1986 until 1993, and David from 1990 to 1996. 


Kicking off the conversation, David empathized with Bowen as he reflected on also being caught off guard on Watch What Happens Live back in 2015, when he said that Steven Seagal had been the worst host to work with on SNL.


“He was a little tough. I mean, he was actually tough, and he was tough to work with. It was hard. He did not want to play along,” David said of Steven at the time. 


Despite several others, including SNL's creator Lorne Michaels, publicly calling out Steven as one of the show’s worst hosts over the years, David admitted on Wednesday’s episode of his podcast that he’d gotten into trouble for sharing this. 

“We got in trouble for saying Steven Seagal,” he told Bowen. “Everyone gets in trouble for saying something, but that’s what everyone asks, and you can only dodge it for so long! You just try to explain why they weren’t great.”

David Spade in a dark suit and shirt at The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize event
Taylor Hill / WireImage

“I heard Paris Hilton was not great, but that was after I’d left,” the host continued. “I’ve heard so many people, but some it just doesn’t work out, and some there’s a reason.”


“Some people deal with stress by lashing out and being kind of overly angry,” Dana then reasoned. “It’s all just anxiety and fear.”


Dana then said that he’d personally found Bowen’s recent comment “benign” because he didn’t even name the person, with Bowen going on to theorize why what he'd said caused such a media storm.

“I think it was me saying that this person made multiple cast members cry,” he explained, before insisting that this was more reflective of the cast’s high-pressure environment rather than the mystery celebrity himself.

Bowen Yang on SNL
Nbc / Will Heath / NBC via Getty Images

“I think that is more about the environment of the place,” Bowen said. “Imagine you stay up until 4:00 a.m. writing a sketch, and then the host is like: ‘I fucking hate this,’ you're gonna have some… Your nerves are frayed. You're gonna have some weird, bizarre, emotional response.”


“You’re exhausted, you’re emotionally spent — I get it,” David agreed, with Bowen clarifying: “I’m not saying I was the one who cried!”

Bowen’s revelation previously piqued the interest of pop culture fans who took to social media at the time to discuss who the badly behaved celeb could be.

Bowen Yang is photographed smiling against a blurred background. They are dressed casually in a button-up shirt and a light, textured top
Nbc / Lauren Clements / NBC via Getty Images

Narrowing the possibilities down, a list started circulating of all of the male celebrities who had hosted the show during Bowen’s tenure as cast member. For context, Bowen joined the series as a writer in 2018, and was promoted to a full-time cast member the following year. 


The names on the list are: Woody Harrelson, David Harbour, Chance the Rapper, Harry Styles, Will Ferrell, Eddie Murphy, Adam Driver, J.J. Watt, RuPaul, John Mulaney, Daniel Craig, Tom Hanks, Chris Rock, Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, Jason Bateman, Timothée Chalamet, John Krasinski, Dan Levy.


Regé-Jean Page, Nick Jonas, Daniel Kaluuya, Elon Musk, Keegan-Michael Key, Owen Wilson, Rami Malek, Jason Sudeikis, Kieran Culkin, Jonathan Majors, Simu Liu, Paul Rudd, Will Forte, Willem Dafoe, Oscar Isaac, Jerrod Carmichael, Jake Gyllenhaal, Benedict Cumberbatch.


Miles Teller, Brendan Gleeson, Jack Harlow, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Austin Butler, Michael B. Jordan, Pedro Pascal, Travis Kelce, Pete Davidson, Bad Bunny, Nate Bargatze, Jason Momoa, Jacob Elordi, Shane Gillis, Josh Brolin, Ramy Youssef, and Ryan Gosling.


Which, I have to confess, hasn’t narrowed it down at all. 

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