Saturday Night Live has kick-started the careers of many comedians, and the series continues to be a stepping stone for those hoping to branch out in the industry, even after 50 years. It’s always exciting seeing current SNL cast members getting a big comedy showcase beyond the NBC show as well, and Sarah Sherman is the latest one. Her newest HBO special, Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh, premiered earlier this month in the 2025 TV schedule, and she’s revealing former castmate Bowen Yang’s relatable reaction.
The special is a mix of Sherman’s body horror and gross-out comedy, which is the opposite of what she usually does on Saturday Night Live. It’s not something that Yang, who officially departed SNL on December 20 following the Christmas episode, would be used to, which is why his opinion meant a lot to Sherman. She told People what her friend and castmate thought of it, and it sounds like it was the perfect thing she needed to hear:
He was screaming like, ‘No,’ because there’s a lot of gross stuff. Bowen was like, ‘This is just so you.’ You know what I mean? That’s all you could ever hope for, is that you’ve created a project with all these amazing people who are all so talented.
Yang was among the many past and present SNL stars who came out to support Sherman and her new special. Luckily, Yang had an A+ reaction and knew that it was just the kind of content Sherman could put out. Getting that kind of feedback from someone she worked with for a long time and has probably seen her at her ups and downs in live comedy clearly meant quite a lot to her.
Sherman’s special is the latest project that she’s done beyond Saturday Night Live. In late 2024, she hosted the streaming competitionHuman vs. Hamster, available to those with an HBO Max subscription. While it was questionable at first glance, it turned out to be a pretty entertaining ride. The project proved that Sherman can be flexible beyond SNL.
Meanwhile, knowing how Yang feels about Sherman’s special is making it all the more sad that he’s no longer on Saturday Night Live. It was always entertaining whenever the two of them did a sketch together or were on Weekend Update together, and the fact that Yang has left the show means that it might be a while until we get the two of them together again. Of course, it’s likely he will return to Studio 8H at some point in the future; we just don’t know when.
Just like with Human vs. Hamster, Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh is streaming on HBO Max, so fans can check it out for themselves and see if Bowen Yang’s reaction is as relatable as ever. Previous episodes of Saturday Night Live are also available to stream with a Peacock subscription.
