Bowen Yang thought SNL Iceberg That Sank the Titanic sketch would never make it to air
Bowen Yang has explained where the Iceberg That Sank the Titanic came from... besides, you know, the Arctic.
As you may recall, Yang played the defensive, shamelessly album-promoting Iceberg in a Weekend Update segment on Saturday Night Live in April. During an appearance on The Tonight Show on Friday, the SNL cast member (and EW cover star) revealed the sketch's backstory to host Jimmy Fallon.
As Yang explained, the idea originally came from SNL co-head writer Anna Drezen, while he was skeptical of the concept at first. "She texts me in February, 'Hey, maybe for the April 10 show, for the Titanic anniversary, you can play the iceberg who sank the Titanic,'" he recalled. "And I was like, 'Yeah, cool, maybe, sure,' kind of raised my eyebrow at her over text."
"But then April rolls around and I text her, 'Hey, were you serious about that iceberg idea?' And she was like, 'I completely forgot about it. Let's do it, why not?'" he continued. And yet, both still couldn't quite believe the sketch would ultimately air.
"The entire week we did it, we were losing our minds a little bit, because we kept looking at each other and bursting out laughing," Yang said. "On Saturday, at 7 p.m., as you're supposed to turn in scripts, we were like, 'What are we doing? This will never make it onto TV. Will people get it?'"
In fact, Yang spoke to EW for our cover story on the SNL star a day before the April broadcast, and shared that he believed the bit would be cut.
"You're currently talking to me as I mourn that loss," he said of the segment. "It's stuff where you're like, 'Wait, couldn't it be possible that other people find this just as funny as I do?'"
Indeed they did: the sketch became a viral sensation, racking up millions of views online.
Fallon also shouted out EW's cover story during the interview, pulling out a copy of our June Pride issue with Yang on the cover.
"I love that pose. What's it called?" Fallon said.
"I was talking to a friend just now, and he said it's, 'Someone just pushed you over the shoulder,'" Yang quipped in response.
You can watch the full Tonight Show segment above.
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