Comedian Punkie Johnson revealed on Wednesday that she didn’t like she “fit” on Saturday Night Live, and her exit from the show was a “mutual thing.”
Johnson said that she started having thoughts like, “I don’t really know if I belong at this job” during an interview with former cast members David Spade and Dana Carvey on their Fly On The Wall podcast. “I feel like with me and SNL, I feel like it was more of a mutual thing,” she continued, “because I can tell you right now, by February—last season, I was like, ‘Nope, I’m done.’”
On August 1, Johnson took to Instagram to confirm the news of her exit in a video, after making the announcement at a comedy show the previous evening. She said there’s no “bad blood, it’s no bridges burnt, it’s no hard feelings,” at the time, and that she was “grateful for the experience,” but didn’t share then that she had wanted to go.
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Cast members are typically signed to seven-year contracts that can be broken by SNL, but not the performer. Fellow cast member Molly Kearney announced days later that they would also not be returning for the show’s 50th season. Johnson said she felt early on that it probably wasn’t a good fit for her, and thought of bowing out much earlier.
“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,’” she recalled. She said her team suggested she make a plan and not to quit without a plan, and she ended up having a good first half of the following season. “I think I got like three or four sketches [in the] first half. And usually I only get maybe two or three on the entire season—so I’m like, ‘Oh man, I'm killing it,” she said.
When the writer she had formed a bond with, Ben Silva, exited the show after two and a half years, Johnson felt like she was back at square one. “[Silva] just knew how to speak Punkie,” she explained, “So if I was telling him something, he knew how to put it in SNL format for me. If I try to put it in SNL format, that’s the hard part.”
Ultimately, Johnson described feeling like a fish out of the water for most of her time on the show. “I didn't really feel like I fit, like I didn’t feel like that was my zone,” she said. “That show is for a different type of person.” She noted that she hadn’t been much of a sketch performer in the past, coming from the world of stand-up comedy.
“I just thought everybody else came from standup,” she explained. “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?”
Ultimately, Johnson said that she’s happy with the exit and looking forward to what’s next. “Ever since word got out that I’m not going back to the show, my phone and opportunities have not stopped,” she said, “It’s crazy.”
