Punkie Johnson Shares Why She Left Saturday Night Live – Jokes About Driving Lorne Michaels ‘Crazy’

Punkie Johnson Shares Why She Left Saturday Night Live, Jokes About Driving Lorne Michaels ‘Crazy’

Punkie Johnson Shares Why She Left Saturday Night Live – Jokes About Driving Lorne Michaels ‘Crazy’. “I didn’t really feel like I fit, like that was my zone. That show is for a different type of person,” Johnson said on David Spade and Dana Carvey’s podcast.

Comedian Punkie Johnson has opened up about her decision to leave Saturday Night Live just before the show’s milestone 50th season.

In a recent appearance on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly on the Wall podcast, the 39-year-old comedian discussed her experience on the iconic sketch series and why she ultimately chose to step away. Johnson revealed that she struggled to find her place within the show’s structured format and had been wrestling with the decision to stay for some time.

“It was a tough choice. For me, it was a neutral feeling with SNL. By February of last season, I knew I was done,” Johnson reflected. “The season before, I was already questioning if I belonged there. I talked to my team, saying, ‘I don’t know if this job is right for me, maybe I should step away.’ I told them really late, right after I found out I’d be coming back. They were like, ‘Punkie, you need a plan, you can’t just quit your job!'”

Johnson also shared that losing a writer she closely collaborated with on personal sketches left her feeling disconnected from the show. Her background in stand-up comedy, with its freeform style, made it challenging to adapt to the more rigid structure of SNL.

“I didn’t come from a sketch background, I never went to a sketch school. I didn’t feel like it was my zone,” Johnson admitted. “I’m more out-of-the-box, unpredictable. That show is built on structure.”

When news broke that Johnson wouldn’t be returning for SNL‘s 50th season, she reached out to the show’s legendary creator, Lorne Michaels, with a heartfelt message.

“I texted Lorne like, ‘Look, you know I love you, I appreciate everything,'” she recalled. “There are only four men in this business who believed in me and made a way for me, and Lorne is one of them.”

However, Johnson couldn’t resist joking about how she might have driven Michaels a bit “crazy” during her time on the show, often playing pranks on him — including one time when she asked him to buy her a gift on his birthday.

“I think I drove him crazy, to the point where he just started ignoring me,” Johnson said with a laugh. “He’d just be like, ‘Get out of my face.’ I’d mess with him.”

Looking forward, Johnson, who joined SNL in 2020, shared that she’s working on a movie and comedy special with Michaels, and still holds a deep affection for the show that helped launch her career.

“My relationship with the show is still strong; we just mutually understood that it wasn’t my zone,” she concluded.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to SNL representatives for comment. Saturday Night Live returns for its 50th season on Saturday, Sept. 28 on NBC.

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