Entertainment

SNL's Hilarious 'Iceberg That Sank The Titanic' Skit Is Required Viewing

by Julie Scagell
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NBC

Bowen Yang deserves an award for this performance

The “Weekend Update” segment of Saturday Night Live is always one of my favorite parts to watch, and last night’s episode was one for the record books. Cast member Bowen Yang played the iceberg that the Titanic hit in 1912 because he felt it was time to tell his side of the story — and his side of the story was hysterical.

The anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is next week and for one, um, freshwater ice formation, it’s always a “really weird time of year” for him. Though Yang’s Iceberg tried to move past that fateful night, host Colin Jost wouldn’t let it go.

“First of all you, came to where I work and you hit me,” Yang said, clearly upset to have to walk everyone through that night again.

Apparently, he was just “chilling” and heard this “Irish cacophony” behind him, coming out of nowhere. Before he could even look to see what the ruckus was about, “half his ass was gone,” which was apparently his best feature.

You can imagine the reactions on social media as people finally hear the other side of the story:

SNL writer Anna Drezen took to Twitter after the skit aired, saying, “Genuine stupid joy to write this impossibly stupid but with Bowen Yang who is the Celine Dion of comedy. He delivers!!!”

The Celine Dion of comedy. Bless.

Yang went on to express during the skit just how frustrated he’s been that no one cared about him during that fateful night.

“First of all, they bumped into me. I said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ which is insane, and then there’s all this yelling,” he explained in the most dramatic way possible.

Yang also said he’s sick of being blamed for those who perished, instead we should be blaming the water because, “They drowned, bitch. No one’s cancelling the ocean.”

Yang appeared on “Weekend Update” two weeks ago to urge viewers to “do more” after the increase of anti-Asian hate crimes dominated headlines, saying he would rather have been doing his character, gay Passover bunny. Being able to take a serious subject and impart humor into it is a delicate task, one Yang continues to nail week after week.

He talked to NPR late last year about being on SNL during a pandemic year.

“I feel like SNL is this kind of fixed, refractive prism. And whatever comes through it is just whatever — is just the absurdity of what’s going on in the world or what people are saying or what’s not being said. I think we all sort of take that seriously,” he said. “And I think we’re all in a place where we’re excited to write.”

In the end, Yang just wants everyone to move past the entire thing and let him show that he has more to his story that just being “that iceberg.”

In fact, he introduced his new album, a hyper-pop EDM new disco fantasia entitled “Music” and got to share some lyrics from one of the songs, “Loverboy,” which was equally fantastic.

After watching him deadpan the iceberg that sank the Titanic, it’s safe to say Bowen Yang is the next star of SNL.

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