CNN
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Punkie Johnson is signing off from “Saturday Night Live” forward of the long-running sketch comedy present’s fiftieth season.
The comic made the announcement on Instagram on Thursday, posting a video through which she mentioned, “After 4 seasons, I can’t be returning to ‘SNL’ for the fiftieth.”
Johnson mentioned later within the clip that she casually dropped the information the night time prior at her “Punkie and Pals” comedy present at Union Corridor in Brooklyn, New York, and woke as much as “textual content messages, telephone calls, (and) tags on the web” about it.
The entertainer additionally made certain to specify that her departure from the present is on good phrases.
“It’s no unhealthy blood, it’s no bridges burned, it’s no exhausting emotions,” Johnson mentioned within the clip. “I really like my individuals!”
“I didn’t suppose none of this was going to be an enormous deal,” she added, occurring to joke, “See, this is the reason Dave Chappelle makes individuals lock up their telephones.”
Johnson, who joined the present in 2020, referred to as “SNL” “a dream I didn’t even know that I may obtain” and mentioned she was “part of one of the vital elite establishments in comedy.”
“I’m so grateful for it,” she mentioned within the video. “That’s nonetheless my individuals. I really like them.”
CNN has reached out to representatives for “SNL” for remark.
The information of Johnson’s departure comes just a few months earlier than “Saturday Evening Reside’s” milestone Season 50 on NBC.
Earlier this week, Sony Photos introduced its film in regards to the pilot episode of the historic sequence, titled “Saturday Evening,” shall be launched in October. It is going to star Dylan O’Brien, Rachel Sennott, Finn Wolfhard, Jon Batiste, Willem Defoe, J.Okay. Simmons and Kaia Gerber.