October 18, 2021
Watch: 'SNL' Comic Bowen Yang Follows Up 'Iceberg' with 'Gay Oompa Loompa'
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Out "Saturday Night Live" cast member Bowen Yang, whose "Gay Iceberg that Sank the Titanic" character instantly became iconic, has done it again – this time with an LGBTQ+ Oompa Loompa, The Hollywood Reporter says.
As with Yang's gay iceberg, the Oompa Loompa was featured on the show's "Weekend Update" segment in an interview with Colin Jost.
"Dropping by to initially talk about the unsafe working conditions in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory," The Hollywood Reporter explained that the character was "a 'proud gay Oompa Loompa,' there to talk about the reaction to the first look at Timothée Chalamet's upcoming 'Wonka,'" a prequel to the beloved 1970s film starring Gene Wilder.
But in his introduction of the "proud gay" Oompa Loompa, Jost inadvertently goes too far.
"Okay, wait, how did you just introduce me?" Bowen's Oompa Loompa asks.
"As a proud gay Oompa Loompa," Jost repeats.
"Oh my god. Thank you," Yang responds, distressed, going on to tell the "Weekend Update" co-anchor, "You just outed me on national television."
From there, Yang's character pivots from "a statement on our impending factory strike" to fretting, "Now I guess I gotta call my parents...when does this air?"
"It's live," Jost explains.
"It's live??!" Yang's Oompa Loompa cries out. Attempting to carry on with his statement (and calling "Wonka" star Chamalet "scrum-diddly-umptious"), the Oompa Loompa begins to decry "unsafe working conditions, before veering back to having just been outed. "I, um, just don't want my family to find out like this."
"You think they'll be upset?" Jost asks.
"They live in Loompa-land. It's not as progressive as here," Yang responds irately. "They, like, just got 'Will & Grace.' So, yeah...it's gonna be a conversation."
After that, feeling liberated enough to "tell the truth about everything," the Oompa Loompa dropped the bombshell that Willy Wonka "doesn't know how to make chocolate!"
Yang – the show's first out Asian cast member – was recently nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series on the strength of his Gay Iceberg sketch from last April.
In a sketch with a somewhat more serious tone, Yang called out anti-Asian hate in a sketch last March, saying, "If someone's personality is 'punch an Asian grandma,' it's not a dialogue.
"I have an Asian grandma, you want to punch her. There ain't no common ground, mama."
Watch Yang's Oompa Loompa sketch below.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
