Bowen Yang says one ‘SNL’ host ‘begged’ for very specific jokes that later drew backlash

Bowen Yang wants everyone to meet Sydney Sweeney he is extremely self-aware.

Earlier this year, “Saturday Night Live” was met with a backlash after the “Anyone But You” star hosted the long-running sketch show in March. Many criticized “SNL” for objectifying Sweeney by pandering to her sex appeal many point to one sketch where Sweeney played on a Hooters server.

But according to Yang, Sweeney wanted her experience on “SNL” to turn out this way.

“She’s an example of a host who came in and understood how she was consumed and perceived,” Yang said after 39 minutes of Wednesday’s episode of David Spade and Dana Carvey’s “Fly on the Wall”“podcast.

“She came in and said, ‘Everyone please make fun of my boobs,’” the “SNL” cast member recalled. “She was practically begging everyone.”

Yang then shared a sweet anecdote about filming the digital short “Bowen’s Straight” with Sweeney.

In the digital short, Sweeny plays herself and confesses to “SNL” cast members Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim that she has a crush on Yang.

In response, Gardner and Nwodim tell Sweeney to take her shot with Yang because he is not gay, as Sweeney assumed, and is “straight.” (In real life, Yang is openly gay.)

As the sketch ultimately leads to a sex scene between Yang and Sweeney, Yang told Spade and Carvey on their Wednesday podcast that the show has hired an intimacy coordinator.

Yang recalls informing Sweeney about the coordinator before the shoot and telling her that if she felt “uncomfortable” at any point during the sex scene, she could “tap out” or cut the scene altogether.

Sweeney’s response to Yang’s concern for her comfort was factual and quite funny.

“And she says, ‘Bowen, I’m taking ‘Euphoria,'” Yang recalled.

Sweeney built her reputation as a sex bomb by playing Cassie on ‘Euphoria’ and filmed several nude scenes for the HBO series — it’s a part of her job that she was initially “shy” about, she told HuffPost in 2019.

Five years later, however, Sweeney seems much more confident, engaging in more risqué scenes – and even narrated ones GQ in March that she wanted to play her bombshell role on “SNL.”

“There are a lot of people who think, ‘Oh, she’s famous because she showed her breasts,'” she told the magazine.

“You just learn the system,” she continued, discussing the assumptions people make about her. “You can try to fight it, but they just fight back. Even if you defend yourself, people will attack you for defending yourself.