Former ‘SNL’ Star Punkie Johnson Admits She “Didn’t Really Feel” Like She “Fit” On The NBC Sketch Comedy Show
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Punkie Johnson is reflecting on why she left Saturday Night Live.
The comedian fleshed out her decision on Wednesday’s episode (Aug. 21) of the Fly on the Wall podcast, co-hosted by fellow SNL alums Dana Carvey and David Spade, per Variety.
Johnson, who became a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show in 2020, noted that she “never grew up in sketch” in comparison to her trained co-stars.
“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. I came from standup so I just thought everybody else came from standup,” she added. “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?’”
Later on, she explained that she started considering her departure ahead of Season 49, and “talked to [her] team” to figure out a course of action.
“I was like, ‘Look, I don’t really know if I belong at this job, so maybe I should step away,’” she recalled. “But I told them super, super late, like right after I found out I got to go back. And it was like ‘Well Punkie, you need a plan. You can’t just quit your job.’”
She described the “first half” of the season as “tremendous,” highlighting that she “got like three or four sketches” when she usually would be given “maybe two or three on the entire season.”
“So I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’m killing it. Like, this is my season,’” she added.
However things “went down” when her writer Ben Silva, who she said “knew how to speak Punkie,” left the show.
“If I was telling him something, he knew how to put it in SNL format for me,” she elaborated. “He knew how to take all of the scribble scratch that I was delivering out of my mouth, and turn it into some real, understandable words.”
Johnson broke the news of her departure at a comedy show on July 31, telling the audience that “after four seasons, [she] will not be returning to SNL for the 50th.” Fortunately for the comedian, she revealed that her “phone and opportunities have not stopped” since the public got word that she is exiting the show. She also told Carvey and Spade that her “relationship with the show is still strong,” citing support from SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels.
Check out Johnson’s conversation with Carvey and Spade above.
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