Punkie Johnson says Saturday Night Live just wasn't the best fit for her

Every season a newbie or two gets pruned from the Saturday Night Live cast, but at least Punkie Johnson—who joined the show in 2020—got to leave on her own terms. It was a “big decision,” she says on the Fly On The Wall podcast, but a “neutral” one. As she said before, there’s no bad blood or bridges burnt; in fact, she maintains a great relationship with head honcho Lorne Michaels. But ultimately, she felt that the show just wasn’t a good fit. 

“By February of last season, I was like, nope, I’m done,” Johnson shares with podcast hosts David Spade and Dana Carvey. “The season before that, I questioned it, I talked to my team, like, ‘I don’t really know if I belong at this job, so maybe I should step away.’ I told them super, super late, right after I found out I’d get to go back. They’re like, ‘Punkie, you need a plan, you can’t just quit your job!'” She adds that she didn’t come up in the sketch comedy world, noting that the “show is for a different type of person”: “I’m crazy, more out-the-box, I’m all over the place. That [show] is a structure.”

Johnson, who had a scene-stealing cameo in the already very funny Bottoms last year, will now work on other projects—including a comedy special produced with Lorne Michaels. Though she “drove him crazy” pulling pranks and messing with him, she names Michaels as one of her biggest supporters. “I texted Lorne like, ‘Look, you know I love you, I appreciate everything,'” she says. “There are only four men in this business who believed in me and made a way for me, and Lorne is one of them.”

It’s a shame Johnson couldn’t stick it out to be part of the historic 50th season, but clearly she’s carving out the path that’s right for her in the comedy world. “My relationship with the show is still strong, we just mutually understood that it wasn’t my zone,” she says.