Bowen Yang's Cheeky Post After Nikki Haley's 'SNL' Appearance Disappears

A bone-dry post by gay "Saturday Night Live" cast member Bowen Yang regarding an appearance on the show by Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley disappeared from Instagram, but got its point across.

The Hollywood Reporter detailed that Yang's post showed a hand-written note addressed to Haley that said, "Welcome to Studio 8H! From, Lorne + everyone at SNL."

In a flourish, Yang emphasized "everyone! :)" in a comment added to the post, which subsequently vanished.

"It's an attempt at keeping things subtle," THR theorized, explaining, "if you want to assume Yang is being totally sarcastic based merely on everything else known about his public persona, well, that's on you." It would appear there was some anticipation that the post would generate some heat; THR noted, "The post's comments were notably disabled."

Haley's "SNL" appearance this past weekend poked fun at Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, whom Haley has trailed so far. But Haley also showed she has a sense of humor by poking fun at herself and a gaffe she committed on the campaign trail when she failed to mention slavery as a cause of the American civil war.

But Haley has been been criticized for making the claim that transgender athletes have a bearing on "a rise in teen girls' suicide ideation," ABC News noted.

"Haley was citing a statistic from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report in 2021 which found about 30% of female high school students said they seriously considered attempting suicide," ABC backgrounded. "That study, however, didn't ask what was behind the suicidal ideation."

"It also found that more than half of LGBTQ students experienced poor mental health and 22% had attempted suicide in the past year."

This is not Yang's first roundabout comment on an anti-trans celebrity appearing on the show. When comedian Dave Chappelle – whose last two Netflix specials have made transgender people the butt of jokes – crashed the stage during the cast's farewell on the Jan. 27 episode, Yang stood conspicuously well away from where Chappelle had claimed a spot next to Jimmy Fallon.

Yang also let it fly after Elon Musk appeared on the long-running sketch show. THR recalled, "When the inflammatory X boss was announced as hosting the show back in 2021, he posted on the social media site: 'Let's find out just how live Saturday Night Live really is' followed by a purple devil emoji."

"Yang wrote in reply: 'What ... does this even mean' with a sad face emoji."

There might be more such fractious fun to follow; THR noted that conservative comedian Shane Gillis is slated to host the show later this month, despite having been fired from the cast only five days after his 2019 hiring after clips of his standup routines using homophobic and racist language surfaced.

Like Chappelle, Gillis has had specials on Netflix. He has also recently partnered with Bud Light after the brew came under attack for having celebrated transgender brand ambassador Dylan Mulvaney's "Days of Girlhood" series with a one-of-a-kind Bud Light beer can emblazoned with Mulvaney's face. The ensuing boycott against Bud Light and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch, knocked the brand from its perch as America's best-selling light beer and cost Anheuser-Busch billions in lost revenue.

Will Yang jest again? Tune in and see!