Punkie Johnson Leaving 'Saturday Night Live' After Four Seasons
Punkie Johnson Leaving 'Saturday Night Live' After Four Seasons
The news came soon after it was revealed that Maya Rudolph would be reprising her Kamala Harris impression from the previous election cycle
Heading into its landmark 50th season which begins September 28, Saturday Night Live is down one player. Punkie Johnson is not returning after four seasons.
NBC has yet to officially announce it, nor is it likely to be confirmed by the show until they officially announce the new season’s cast, and that’s probably intentional. However, Johnson is the one who made the reveal and allegedlypermitted its circulation. The comedian announced at her Punkie Johnson & Friends show, which featured castmates Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker, and Molly Kearney, as well as Asha Ward, Alex English, and Vanessa Jackson. According to audience member Shayne, whose Twitter handle is swws2039 “Punkie is leaving SNL, she said this was fine to share online so I guess Twitter is the first to know. It definitely wasn’t a joke either like she’s actually gone and she’s very happy about it.” According to the user, whose claims have been corroborated, the departure wasn’t too amicable. That there was friction building when “she was told to lose her dreads” and “stop getting buff”. Johnson subsequently spoke to Jon Schneider, host of the Saturday Night Network, to confirm her departure.
Johnson would then post a video to Instagram Thursday afternoon to announce it publicly. Captioned “SNL I LOVE YOU… LOOKING FORWARD TO WHATS NEXT!!! 💙🫡#snl #49 PUNKIE OUT!!!!” she explained hearing part of “What are you looking forward to next season?” during a Q&A turned into “Are you coming back next season?” and she answered straightforwardly. So then her phone blew up after word got out. “It’s no bad blood, it’s no bridges burnt, it’s no hard feelings,” she added. “SNL was a dream I didn’t even know I could achieve. I was part of one of the most elite institutions in comedy, and I’m so grateful for it… but my time there has come to an end.” Her post got love from former castmates Ego Nwodim, Cecily Strong, Chris Redd, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, and writers Mike DiCenzo and Celeste Yim.
She first joined Saturday Night Live as a featured player in Season 46, promoted to repertory, as is typical before third seasons, in 2022. She was the show’s eighth black female cast member and only the second Black LGBTQ+ woman following Danitra Vance, who was still closeted, making Johnson the first to be out when she joined. Among fans, she has typically been considered underused, and that’s exemplified by the SNN’s screen time tracking. In season 49, Johnson logged 37 minutes and 13 seconds, amounting to less screen time than any of the show’s other repertory players, and was also outranked by four of the show’s featured players (Walker, Longfellow, Marcello Hernandez, and rookie Chloe Troast). Only Kearney had less, by a whole 12 minutes. In an era where recurring characters are sparse, her one named character noted on the SNL Archives is Shayna, a friend of Nwodim’s Lisa from Temecula. Her impressions done include Nicki Minaj, Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Harriet Tubman, Angel Reese, Ice Spice and Gayle King.
Notably, Johnson is the most recent cast member to play Vice President Kamala Harris, something many were looking at after President Joe Biden ceased his campaign for reelection and Harris became the presumptive Democrat nominee thanks to massive support and endorsements. The appearance was the cold open in the March 9 episode hosted by Josh Brolin with musical guest Ariana Grande. The cold open was about the State of the Union address, with the focus shifting quickly to lampooning Katie Britt (played by Scarlett Johansson)’s response. It may very well end up being the last appearance of recently-installed Mikey Day as President Joe Biden all things considered. Due to the nature of the event, she didn’t get a line. Still, after so much stunt-casting in the Trump administration, plus the likes of Woody Harrelson, John Mulaney, and Jim Carrey, there were certainly some fans that were looking forward to Johnson getting a major boost in screentime by continuing to play Harris.
However, hours before Johnson revealed her departure, it was reported that former cast member Maya Rudolph, who played the Vice President ten times, beginning from her first campaign for president last cycle, including four times as VP candidate, twice as VP-elect with Carrey’s Biden, and once as VP (in Rudolph’s 2021 hosting gig), will be reprising the quite-popular and Emmy-winning impression this fall. Pre-production on the third season of Rudolph’s Apple TV+ comedy series Loot, which was scheduled to begin filming August 26, has paused as a result. It seems the cast and crew of the series which Rudolph stars in and executive produces were informed earlier this week of the scheduling conflicts pushing production back. As a production of both Universal Television and Lorne Michaels’s Broadway Video like SNL, arrangements were easy to achieve. She is currently nominated for four Emmys, including Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Loot, and two of SNL’s 16, Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her hosting gig, and Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for the Mother’s Day monologue song.
Sources: LateNighter, Shayne, Deadline (1, 2), SNL Archives