Ex-‘SNL’ Cast Member Explains Abrupt Departure Ahead of 50th Season

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Punkie Johnson candidly revealed her reasons for leaving the hit sketch show ahead of its 50th season.

Speaking to fellow former SNL cast members Dana Carvey and David Spade on the duo’s Fly on the Wall podcast, Johnson admitted that she “didn’t really feel like I fit” on NBC’s legendary show. In fact, Johnson wanted to leave at the beginning of season 49 but her management convinced her to stick it out until the end.

“I talked to my team. I was like, ‘Look, I don’t really know if I belong at this job, so maybe I should step away,’” Johnson 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.'”

During the first few weeks of her final season, Johnson felt “tremendous” about the increased opportunities she was afforded. “I think I got, like, three or four sketches on the first half [of the season],” she said. “And usually, I only get maybe two or three on the entire season, so I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’m killing it. Like, this is my season.’”

But things took a turn after the departure of Johnson’s friend, Ben Silva, from the show’s writing staff. “If I was telling him something, he knew how to put it in SNL format for me,” she said. “If I try to put it in SNL format, that’s the hard part.”

Ultimately, Johnson felt out of place around her fellow cast members, who seemed more attuned to the fast-paced nature of the job. “I never grew up in sketch, I never went to a sketch school,” she said. “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,” she said. "I'm crazy, more out-the-box, I'm all over the place. That [show] is a structure."

“I came from standup,” Johnson continued, “so I just thought everybody else came from standup. 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?’”

Johnson noted that she has nothing but respect for the show and its creator, Lorne Michaels. When news broke of her exit, "I texted Lorne like, 'Look, you know I love you, I appreciate everything,'" she recalled. "There are only four men in this business who believed in me and made a way for me, and Lorne is one of them,” Johnson said."My relationship with the show is still strong, we just mutually understood that it wasn't my zone."

Johnson joined SNL in 2020 as a featured player during the show’s 46th season. Johnson rarely played key characters within sketches, but she was well-known for embodying an exaggerated version of herself on “Weekend Update.” Johnson was SNL’s eighth Black female cast member and its first openly gay Black female cast member.

You can listen to Johnson's complete Fly on the Wall interview below.