Kate McKinnon was visibly emotional during Saturday Night Live's May 21 season finale, which marked her final performance as a cast member on the show. A fan favorite for the last 10 seasons, McKinnon’s SNL exit was layered with several nods to her time on the long-running sketch comedy program. McKinnon was a dynamic standout, often playing wacky characters or doing expertly exaggerated celebrity impersonations like Ellen DeGeneres or Justin Bieber.
Time after time, McKinnon proved to have brilliant talent, and with a blossoming film career, she could become one of SNL’s most successful alumni. The Season 47 finale paid tribute to her iconic tenure and fans won’t soon forget her wild ride at SNL.
Close Encounter
McKinnon’s character, Colleen Rafferty, the subject of a zany alien abduction, remains one of the most memorable series of sketches of the last 10 seasons of SNL. Fans can recall the wild tales told by Colleen with her vivid and grotesque descriptions. Though the theme was repeated a number of times, the “Close Encounter” sketch that starred Ryan Gosling, who couldn’t keep a straight face, is the most popular rendition.
It’s easy to see how McKinnon could reduce Gosling to giggles with her sprawled physicality and remarkable delivery. The “Close Encounter” sketches helped cement McKinnon’s star power and affirmed her ability to play completely original characters. “Close Encounter” is arguably McKinnon’s strongest series of sketches.
Calvin Klein Ad
Though McKinnon did a number of impressions of Justin Bieber over the years, the parody of his dramatic Calvin Klein ad remains a favorite. In the pre-taped ad sketch, McKinnon mocked Bieber’s angsty facial expressions and played up his sexually charged energy.
Kate McKinnon is great at executing impressions that play on exaggerated, odd characteristics rather than dead-pan realism. Her Bieber character was especially entertaining because of the way she honed in on the pop star’s tendency to sometimes take himself a little too seriously.
Long Island Medium
In one of her silliest sketches, McKinnon nailed the hilarious quirks of reality TV star and medium, Theresa Caputo. Though the real Caputo is funny enough on her own, McKinnon leaned into the nuances of Caputo’s eccentricities, like the way she often acted surprised at her ability to connect with the dead.
The “Long Island Medium” sketch gave McKinnon room to play with an over-the-top, real-life character and she proved that she could blend accuracy with exaggeration. McKinnon’s portrayal was playful, enthusiastic, and stands out as one of her most fun, exploratory impressions.
Diner Lobster
Fans of the modern era of SNL know the “Diner Lobster” sketch served as a template for many other future musical sketches from frequent host, comedian John Mulaney. The sketch featured Mulaney as a wiry diner employee that unveiled the wild and musical existence of it’s pitiful, tanked lobster residents that were tragically ordered by a customer played by Pete Davidson.
In this takeoff from the Broadway musical “Les Miserables”, McKinnon made a terrific splash as Clawsette, daughter lobster to Kenan Thompson’s Valjean lobster character. McKinnon skillfully portrayed the sweet, but unsettling realization that the lobster would be killed and served. All of the players made the scene stand out, but McKinnon’s comically somber singing still rings in fans ears.
Teacher Fell Down
In a sketch featuring Five-Timers Club inductee Jonah Hill, McKinnon plays an oddball driver’s ed teacher presiding over a classroom of high-schoolers. The scene opens with McKinnon sprawled awkwardly across the floor and eventually reveals that she’s fallen and refuses help from her students. McKinnon’s character launches into satirical dramatic monologues about the severity of her fall.
McKinnon is a genius at playing melodramatic characters and her part in “Teacher Fell Down” enabled her to lead the comedic scene through a labyrinth of drama. She perfectly portrayed an uptight, attention-seeking weirdo and had the audience howling as she went further and further with her theatrics.
Supermarket Sweep
Teamed with Aidy Bryant in a parody of the 1990s game show Supermarket Sweep, the two play closeted lovers in front of the oblivious show host, played by John Krasinski. McKinnon and Bryant’s characters are bumbling, clumsy, and hopelessly devoted to one another, ending the sketch with an awkward marriage proposal.
While McKinnon had great chemistry with most of her SNL co-stars, her sketches with Aidy Bryant clicked especially well. The two performed generously with one another but also matched each other’s energy. “Supermarket Sweep” was a strong example of McKinnon and Bryant’s cohesive playfulness.
Election Week Cold Open
As one of SNL’s longest-running cast members, McKinnon had several opportunities to play serious topics like Hillary Clinton’s loss of the 2016 Presidential election. Previously tapped to play a funny version of Clinton, McKinnon’s cold open, in which she played the piano and sang an especially melancholy version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, came as a surprise to everyone watching.
Though viewers could expect a political marker for that week’s cold open, no one could have predicted how SNL would handle the election’s outcome. Though SNL has used the opening sequence to address difficult or unusual headlines a number of times throughout the years, McKinnon’s quiet and understated performance is cemented in both SNL and pop culture history.
Kellywise
In this stark parody of the horror film, It, McKinnon plays two of her classic impersonations of political figures, Kellyanne Conway and Hillary Clinton. The sketch follows Anderson Cooper 360 host, Anderson Cooper played by Alex Moffat, in his quest to book a guest for his show. He stumbles upon McKinnon’s Kellyanne, hiding in the sewer grate, trying to lure him in the style of Pennywise the clown.
McKinnon was brilliantly cast as Kellyanne Conway throughout the Trump presidency and played upon Conway’s scattered, crisis-mode, performance style. McKinnon could play creepy and sinister with as much skill as she played silly, so the political/horror crossover in “Kellywise” matched McKinnon’s comedic sensibilities.
Apple Picking Ad
In another prime McKinnon and Bryant pairing, “Apple Picking Ad” was a whacky take on the classic Northeastern, Fall activity. The two could keenly play whimsical orchard owners, but the sketch will go down in history for the moment McKinnon broke character as she laughed through the line “We also have a petting zoo!”
SNL fans have long argued over whether or not they like to see the actors break, but McKinnon’s charm and skillful maneuvering lets her off the hook. McKinnon was having great fun in the apple picking sketch and her fit of giggles were completely infectious and embraced by the audience.
Final Enounter Cold Open
In a touching final turn as abduction survivor Colleen Rafferty, McKinnon starred in the last cold open of season 47. Viewers knew what they were in for when the scene opened to the recognizable Pentagon room, where McKinnon had previously delivered a number of stellar performances as the outlandish Rafferty. This moving new version of the “Close Encounter” SNL sketch in season 57 has become an instant classic.
Most of the scene played much like the previous versions of the sketch, but McKinnon was visibly emotional as it closed with a heartfelt farewell as she willingly entered a UFO. McKinnon gathered herself to utter, “Well, Earth, I love you. Thanks for letting me stay awhile. Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night.” McKinnon could not have received a more appropriate and heartwarming end to her time as an SNL cast member.