As he makes his transition from “Saturday Night Live” into cinema with films like “Wicked” and Andrew Ahn’s upcoming re-imagining of Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet,” Bowen Yang is taking time out to pay homage to the filmmakers who have shaped his tastes. Taking a quick trip to the Criterion Closet, he offered his praise to filmmakers such as Wim Wenders and Whit Stillman, but reserved his highest appreciation for the “pope of trash” himself, John Waters.

Describing Waters as “probably my favorite director ever,” Yang took home his film “Multiple Maniacs” and highlighted the filmmaker’s ability to turn the “abject” into something “beautiful and elevated and filmic.”

“What Divine and Mink Stole do in the church, kind of the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen,” said Yang. “I’m not a pearl-clutcher. It takes a lot to shock me. John Waters is a timeless shocker.