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Watch Kate McKinnon's SNL Sketches and Monologue from December 16
The SNL MVP returned to host Saturday Night Live for the first time since leaving in Season 47, with musical guest Billie Eilish--and Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph showed up!
As anyone who watched Kate McKinnon during the eleven years that the long-running cast member was on the show knows, McKinnon was among the best to ever do it. Comic timing and master impression skills are among her brightest gifts, yet it's McKinnon's supreme ease while performing that makes her such an exceptional joy to watch. Key words being "while performing": During McKinnon's December 16 Saturday Night Live monologue, the Barbie actress admitted that simply being herself in front of an audience felt strange.
"My name's Kate," she told the screaming crowd, hosting for her first time during the show's Christmas episode. "I used to work here, and now I'm back at my old job. This is so weird to be doing 'the monologue.' I don't really like to talk in my own voice—that's kind of why I got into this racket in the first place."
McKinnon joked that she left SNL because "my skin was reacting poorly to the prosthetics," and said her life after the show has involved finding herself. And during past Hosts' monologues, she added, "I usually played the role of 'freak next to hot person,'" a statement backed up by a series of photographs.
But McKinnon wasn't alone on stage for long. As she stepped to a tiny piano to pretend-play (a callback to Adam Driver's monologue the week before?), delivering her personal spin on "I'll Be Home for Christmas," she was joined by fellow SNL alums Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph in glittering holiday wear.
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"We were just walking by," Wiig told McKinnon. Wiig and Rudolph gave us the pleasure of sticking around for a few sketches; an incredible turn as ABBA alongside Bowen Yang, and the music video "Tampon Farm."
Last night's show was a gift indeed, and one chock full of Christmas sketches. Watch Kate McKinnon's SNL sketches from December 16 below.
Christmas Awards Cold Open
SNL skipped the typical political cold open, instead opting for a seasonal one: The "Christmas Awards," featuring Heidi Gardner and Bowen Yang as E! hosts honoring accomplishments like "Most Disappointing Gift Given to a 10-Year-Old Boy" and nominated heroes like "Dad pretending to love his son's gift."
Monologue featuring Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph
Watch above.
North Pole News: Killer Whale Attack
Chloe Fineman and Mikey Day are adorable elf reporters covering a killer whale attack at the North Pole—with a wild-eyed Scottish elf (Kate McKinnon) the only witness. McKinnon really makes a meal out of the phrase "Kris Kringle." Pongo
Pongo
Something's not right with Pongo, the silent-as-a-spider puppy substitute who can't die. Pongo: “He just is!”
ABBA Christmas
Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Bowen Yang play 1970s Swedish pop group ABBA, "the number one band alphabetically," singing Christmas versions of their hits. Nevermind the costumes and dancing, the foursome's facial expressions are the best thing about this standout sketch (Rudolph's especially).
Gifts from Mom
Kate McKinnon is perfection playing someone so many of us know: That person who criticizes the gift they chose while you're opening it.
Tampon Farm
If this brilliant pretaped sketch featuring McKinnon, Rudolph and Wiig doesn't single-handedly revive the Lilith Fair, there's no justice.
Yankee Swap
At an office yankee swap, a life-saving gift isn’t the big ticket item that a generous coworker hoped for.
Whiskrs R We with Billie Eilish
There was a surprising lack of resurrected Kate McKinnon characters on the December 16 episode—a testament to her talent for keeping it fresh. But we did get a new Whiskers R We sketch that reunited McKinnon with her "Hotel Ad" sketch partner (and musical guest) Billie Eilish.
Cinema Classics
SNL freshman Chloe Troast teams up with Kate McKinnon in the outtakes of a classic holiday film.
