Saturday Night Live’s Bowen Yang is apologizing to Wicked star Ariana Grande for the exaggerated kiss he gave her on SNL.
The two appeared on the Las Culturistas podcast with Matt Rogers recently.
Deadline described the skit this way: Yang plays the boyfriend of Grande’s son and meets her for the first time.
During a game of charades, the competition gets heated. Yang hurls an insult at Grande intending to needle her in the spirit of competition. Grande takes the bait and fires back by demeaning Yang’s private parts, among other things.
The insults get progressively worse, and tensions builds to a point where it takes a sudden turn.
During rehearsals, Grande says she thought to herself, ‘How funny would it be if we kissed at the end?’” Page Six reported her as saying. However, she kept the idea to herself.
Yang, however, thought the same thing and texted the idea to Grande who quickly went for the idea.
But just like in the skit itself, the kiss was a bit oversized.
“I really have to apologize to you in person,” he said during Las Culturistas podcast, reported Vulture. “I opened up my mouth too much when we kissed on SNL.”
“You absolutely did. I was shaking after,” she responded. “Not in a bad way. Just in a disarming way.”
Later during the podcast, Grande backed away from being offended about Yang’s mouth being too open.
“For the characters, I think it was perfectly open,” she said.
You can see the four minute sketch here.
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Ah, the unexpected turns of comedy—truly delightful. Bowen Yang and Ariana Grande have delivered a moment of pure spontaneity, which, of course, led to a flurry of media attention. The kiss, an impromptu twist, proves once again how unpredictability shapes the best of performances. A fascinating moment for both artists.