After he was confused for Bowen Yang in an article, comedian Joel Kim Booster says another outlet mixed up the pair in a story about the confusion.
In Wednesday’s episode of Las Cultaristas, a pop culture podcast hosted by Yang and Matt Rogers, Yang laments that an article from the Hollywood Reporter mixed him up with Joel Kim Booster. Booster and Yang are both Asian comedians.
Then, in an article from Out magazine about Yang’s comments about being mixed up with Booster, Out mixed up Yang and Booster again.
In a screenshot posted by Booster, Out misattributed Yang’s comments on Las Cultaristas to Booster.
The article also stated that “Booster and Kim,” which are both parts of Booster’s last name, “continue to be two of the funniest comedians working today, and continue to be two very different comedians and men.”
“The deep irony of this post is Out ALSO misidentifying us. What is happening,” Booster tweeted today. “This feels like a social experiment.”
Yang addressed the situation on his Instagram story, saying, “Lmaooooo not @outmagazine mixing up me and joel IN ADDITION to @hollywoodreporter,” and shared the screenshot of the article from Out.
The initial article from the Hollywood Reporter that mixed up the two comedians, which covered Julianna Margulies’ controversial comments on a different podcast, was published last week.
The original version of the article quoted Booster’s comments about Margulies and mislabeled him as a Saturday Night Live cast member. Yang, not Booster, is a cast member of Saturday Night Live.
This isn’t the first time the Hollywood Reporter has mixed up the two. In 2019, the publication posted a photo of Booster on Twitter, captioned “Get to know #SNL’s newest cast member @bowenyang”
By Wednesday afternoon, Out and the Hollywood Reporter had both corrected their mistakes.
“An earlier version of this story misattributed a quote from Yang’s podcast to Booster,” Out‘s update reads. “Out has corrected this error and deeply regrets this mistake.”
Update 9:48am CT, Dec 7: In a tweet, Booster said that he and Yang promised each other that they would no longer try to make people feel better about mixing them up.
“No more “no worries you’re okay, haha” to assuage people’s guilt,” Booster tweeted. “I still give people a lot of grace but sometimes it’s good for people to sit in it.”
Then, adding insult to injury, Pop Crave called Yang and Booster “Booster and Kim” while covering the story.
Oh that’s not— pic.twitter.com/n0s7XdeTFi
— Joel Kim Booster (@ihatejoelkim) December 7, 2023
The Daily Dot contacted representatives for Yang, Booster, Out, and the Hollywood Reporter via email.
