She walked away.
Comedian and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Punkie Johnson, 39, who made history as the show’s first openly queer black woman, is opening up about why she left.
While talking to fellow “SNL” alums David Spade and Dana Carvey on their “Fly on the Wall” podcast, Johnson addressed her decision to leave the show ahead of its landmark 50th season.
“I talked to my team. I was like, ‘Look, I don’t really know if I belong at this job, so maybe I should step away,’” Johnson told Spade and Carvey.
She added, “But I told them super, super late, like right after I found out I got to go back. And it was like ‘Well Punkie, you need a plan. You can’t just quit your job.’”
Johnson was on “SNL” for four seasons, joining the show in 2020 and exiting in 2024, after Season 49.
“It wasn’t even a dream because I never thought that I would get there. That’s how surprised I was,” Johnson told NBC News in 2021.
“I’m just this little lesbian chick from New Orleans who is just enjoying life doing comedy and thinking that’s it.”
She’s also done standup and appeared on shows such as “A Black Lady Sketch Show” “Space Force” and “Adam Ruins Everything.”
After talking to her team, she decided to stick around for Season 49, and at first, the situation was going well.
“I think I got like three or four sketches on the first half [of the season],” she said. “And usually I only get maybe two or three on the entire season, so I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’m killing it. Like, this is my season.’”
However, after her writer Ben Silva left, Johnson started questioning the job again.
“If I was telling him something, he knew how to put it in ‘SNL’ format for me. If I try to put it in ‘SNL’ format, that’s the hard part,” Johnson said.
The comedian explained that she felt out of place.
“I didn’t really feel like I fit, like I didn’t feel like that was my zone. That show is for a different type of person,” she said.
Johnson added, “I came from standup so I just thought everybody else came from standup. I started having conversations with people and everybody was like, ‘Oh yeah, we went to school for this.’ I’m like, ‘Y’all went to school to be here?’”
In an Instagram video posted earlier this month confirming her departure, Johnson said, “It’s no bad blood, it’s no bridges burned, it’s no hard feelings. Bro, I love my people! I didn’t think none of this was going to be a big deal.”
