Bowen Yang — yes, your favorite “SNL” icon, pop culture chaos agent, and walking meme generator — just got real in an interview, and it’s equal parts heartbreaking and wait-he-said-WHAT?
So picture this: young Bowen, living his best teenage life in Colorado (as best you can in Colorado when you’re gay and the Wi-Fi isn’t even fast). His parents? Well, they kinda accidentally found out he was not-so-straight. Like, “Oops! We peeked at your browser history and now we need a family meeting” levels of finding out.
“They didn’t exactly get a glitter-filled coming out speech,” Bowen explained to Willie Geist in an interview that honestly needed a therapist and a mimosa on standby. “It was more like, ‘Surprise! Plot twist: I’m gay’ — and they were like, ‘Oh no, we didn’t realize this was the storyline we were in.’”
Now here’s where things take a turn darker than a Netflix true crime doc: his parents, confused and trying their best (but also majorly fumbling), told him, “Hey, if you wanna go to NYU and live your best artsy, bagel-eating life, you have to go to conversion therapy first.”
And Bowen, like the icon he is, was like, “K, I guess???” and just kinda went with it.
“I humored them,” he said, which is the most chill way to say “I endured emotional trauma because people didn’t know better.” He added that the whole experience was “very painful and detrimental,” which is therapist-speak for “Yeah, that messed me up big time.”
Luckily, our boy Bowen didn’t just survive — he thrived. After the experience, he did what all great queer icons do: he healed, he got funny, he landed on SNL, and now he’s making us all laugh with bits about Titanic, icebergs, and disco.
The moral of the story? Conversion therapy = garbage. Acceptance = hot. And Bowen Yang = national treasure with cheekbones carved by Greek gods and comedic timing sharper than your ex’s ghosting skills.
