Who played Kim Jong-un on tonight’s Saturday Night Live?


Saturday Night Live review

For everyone out there who watched tonight’s Saturday Night Livewe foresee a question about their Kim Jong-un — who was playing him? After all, it was clear early on that SNL did not just bring out a cast member for the role — and smartly so, given that they have no male Asian cast members. (Host Sandra Oh was present, playing the interpreter — did anyone else find it weird that she was interpreting Kim into English in front of Vladimir Putin?

Anyhow, we’re here to tell you that the man behind Kim Jong-un on the show tonight was none other than SNL writer Bowen Yang. He’s appeared on some shows and movies including Broad City and Isn’t It Romantic?, but he’s yet to be credited as an on-screen performer on the NBC sketch show. In that sense, this is a great break for him playing a noteworthy (albeit controversial) figure who SNL hasn’t tried to depict all that much on-screen.

Want some SNL video updates right now? Then check out one of the latest all about that below! Following that, be sure to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube — also, we suggest that you visit our show playlist to get even more information right now.

Yang has been a part of the writing staff for the entirety of this season, and you never quite know what one on-camera appearance can eventually lead to! Leslie Jones, for example, was not a part of the featured cast when she did her first Weekend Update segment. It just went over extremely well and because of this, she did end up becoming something so much more and a fixture of the show in the present era. There are certainly other writers over the years, including Bob Odenkirk and Conan O’Brien, who the series could’ve done more with on-camera — even if we understand they had plenty of talent on the show already.

As for whether or not we could see Yang again as this character, that remains to be seen and it’ll probably depend heavily on the headlines. We certainly think that there are going to be opportunities to see Kim Jong-un again, but we don’t know how often the show’s really going to want to go here. How much do you really want to anger Kim Jong-un on a sketch show? That’s something worth wondering, but we’re certainly down to see him back on the show again at some point.

For some more news when it comes to SNL…

Remember to visit the link here for our review from tonight’s episode!

What do you think about SNL introducing a version of Kim Jong-un? Do you want to see it again? Be sure to share right now in the comments. (Photo: NBC.)

Love TV? Be sure to like Matt & Jess on Facebook for more updates!