Punkie Johnson is shifting on from Saturday Night time Dwell.
On Thursday, Aug. 1, the comic, 39 introduced her departure from the long-lasting sketch present in a video posted to Instagram.
“I simply need to let after 4 seasons, I can’t be returning to SNL for the fiftieth,” Johnson started in a clip addressing her followers. “Alright, so final evening, I had a Punkie and Associates present, and because it was some SNL solid and writers on the present, I opened up the ground for questions.”
The actress revealed that “all the things was going fantastic” till an viewers member requested what she was most “wanting ahead to” within the present’s upcoming fiftieth season.
“I don’t keep in mind the precise query, all I heard was, ‘me and subsequent season.’ I’m not going to misinform my pals, so I simply stated, ‘Oh, I ain’t coming again,'” she recalled. “Then I wakened this morning to textual content messages, cellphone calls, tags on the web. I’m like, ‘What’s going on!’ They’re like, ‘Properly, you made some feedback.’”
The A Black Girl Sketch Present alum assured followers that there was “no dangerous blood” or “bridges burned” together with her departure and he or she was merely “having enjoyable” at her comedy present.
“I like my individuals. I ain’t assume none of this was going to be an enormous deal,” she stated, earlier than joking, “See that is why Dave Chappelle make individuals lock up they telephones.”
“However yo, man, SNL was a dream I didn’t even know that I might obtain,” she continued, concluding, “Man, I used to be part of one of the vital elite establishments in comedy, and I’m so grateful for it. That’s nonetheless my individuals, I like them, I’mma be on the after events appearing a plum idiot, however, , my time there has come to an finish.”
Johnson captioned her put up, “SNL I LOVE YOU… LOOKING FORWARD TO WHATS NEXT!!! 💙🫡#snl #49 PUNKIE OUT!!!!✌🏽.”
Johnson’s SNL costar Ego Nwodim reacted to the information of her departure and wrote within the feedback, “Love you til the dying of me Punkie!! Now get off instagram and no matter tf modifying app you used and name me again please!”
Johnson, whose actual title is Jessica Williams, made historical past because the present’s second overtly queer Black girl when she was promoted as a daily solid member in 2022 after becoming a member of the present as a featured participant in 2020.
In a June 2021 interview, Johnson opened up concerning the surreal expertise of becoming a member of the solid and the comedy establishment.
“It wasn’t even a dream as a result of I by no means thought that I might get there. That is how stunned I used to be,” she advised NBC Information. “I am simply this little lesbian chick from New Orleans who’s simply having fun with life doing comedy and considering that is it.”
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She admitted that she fell on laborious occasions in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic and he or she relied on “a cope with God and the universe” this previous 12 months to know if comedy was her path.
“I used to be like, ‘If I get this job, that signifies that I am imagined to do comedy,'” she stated of auditioning for SNL.