Bowen Yang reveals his pick for “SNL”'s best recurring 'Weekend Update' character: 'We're still quoting it'

Derek LawrenceWed, April 15, 2026 at 10:56 PM UTC

0

Bowen Yang on 'The Rundown'Credit: Saturday Night Live/YouTubeKey Points -

Bowen Yang said that Stefon is his favorite "Weekend Update" character.

The SNL alum explained why Stefon was the "perfect joke bag."

Yang talked about the beauty of creating your own character for "Weekend Update."

Saturday Night Live's hottest "Weekend Update" recurring character is Stefon — at least according to Bowen Yang.

Yang recently departed SNL after his iconic run, but he returned to Studio 8H for the latest edition of the show's The Rundown, in which he discussed the art of a great "Weekend Update" feature. Cecily Strong's Jeanine Pirro and Maya Rudolph's Omarosa Manigault Newman were among those name-checked by Yang, but he ultimately landed on Bill Hader's Stefon as his pick for the best character.

"I am going to choose Stefon, just 'cause we're still saying, 'New York's hottest club is...'" he said of Hader's New York City correspondent, who would suggest outrageous and bizarre clubs and parties. "That was the perfect joke bag for things that could just live together. They weren't just random things, but they were details that had to be contextualizing each other. And that's what made you laugh."

Created by Hader and John Mulaney, Stefon debuted in a 2008 sketch in which he and host Ben Affleck were pitching a film to a studio. But the colorful performance soon transitioned to being a "Weekend Update" staple, eventually building to Hader's final appearance as a main cast member where Stefon and anchor Seth Meyers got married.

Advertisement

"A Mulaney-Hader classic," Yang declared of the segments. "We're still quoting them today, we're still watching them back. There was an arc with that, and I love that as the journey of an SNL feature that started from a thing that didn't really work in a sketch, but then completely was off to the races as soon as it was in the right home."

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.

Yang was a powerhouse "Weekend Update" performer as well, building his SNL legacy through characters like a proud gay Oompa Loompa, the iceberg that sank the Titanic, Dobby the House Elf, viral baby hippo Moo Deng, and as half of the trend forecasters.

"The beatuy of 'Update' features is, if it makes it to the show, that is something that you can really own in terms of its success," he said. "It really does rest on you."

on Entertainment Weekly

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”