Kristen Wiig's Aunt Linda Returned to "Weekend Update," and She's Confused as Ever
Wiig's personal favorite character shared her mixed-up Barbie and Oppenheimer reviews with Colin Jost on April 6.
On April 6, 2024, Kristen Wiiig made her triumphant return to Saturday Night Live as Host, 12 after departing the show. And she brought a couple of characters from her seven-year run as a cast member along for the evening—including Aunt Linda, the cranky and all-mixed-up "Weekend Update" movie critic.
Reviving Target Lady, Dooneese, or Gilly would've been too obvious during Wiig's fifth stint as Host (besides, Target Lady is currently starring in a series of ads for the store). Wiig reached a bit deeper into her bag of tricks during a night full of celebrity cameos, reviving eccentric party-toast character Gail alongside former coworkers Fred Armisen and Will Forte. Then, she busted out Aunt Linda's sensible ash-blonde wig and pink blazer to roll up next to Colin Jost, pulling an array of faces to convey her disappointment in the past year's biggest movies.
"Hello Seth," Wiig's Aunt Linda greeted Jost, evidently mistaking him for former "Update" anchor Seth Meyers. "Someone's gotten some work done," she added, jerking her thumb toward Jost amid a symphony of suggestive eyebrow wiggles.
Aunt Linda reviewed Barbie and Oppenheimer on "Weekend Update"—but did love one movie
Aunt Linda's last "Update" visit was way back in 2010, and she had a few updates to share.
"I got divorced!" she announced. "My husband finally got hearing aids; 10 minutes later, he was on a bus!"
Wiig's Aunt Linda quickly moved on to her pan of the "90-minute stinko called Barbie."
"And where are they? On the moon?!" she said, referring to Barbie's world. "And that Ken character! Ryan Gosling? More like Ryan Gosling."
"I...I think you just said his name the same twice," Jost pointed out.
"He's very hard to make fun of," Aunt Linda admitted. (Gosling, who's set to host SNL on April 13, lint-rolled Wiig's new Five-Timers Club jacket during her opening monologue.)
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Meanwhile, Oppenheimer, "directed by Christopher No Thanks," didn't fare any better. "Why the heck would anyone make a movie about the person who invented the microwave?," she wondered. And don't get Aunt Linda started on the series The Bear (the way she pronounces "restaurant" is very special).
Paula Pell, who was an SNL writer from 1995-2020, shared a behind-the-scenes photo of Wiig back in her Aunt Linda costume on April 7. Her Instagram caption suggested she'd re-teamed with her former collaborator for the new "Update" bit.
"I had such a great time writing down memory lane with Kristen Wiig this weekend at SNL," the Girls5Eva star wrote. "We had both forgotten how much we love Aunt Linda. I give it ten 'whaaaaaaaats?'"
Kristen Wiig based Aunt Linda on a "confused" woman on a flight
In a March 2024 interview on Conan O'Brien's podcast, Wiig revealed that Aunt Linda was her favorite character from her time on the show—and that she was "based on someone that was on a plane."
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Back when Wiig was a performer with L.A. sketch comedy group The Groundlings, she took a flight on which everyone watched the same movie on overhead screens.
"It was The Matrix. She was so confused," Wiig told O'Brien. "She was just like, 'What?' She's like, 'Why is he flying?' She was so loud, and I was listening to her and writing down things she was saying. She's like, 'Now we're flying.'"
When Wiig landed SNL, she slightly altered the character for "Weekend Update."
"We tried it the way that I wrote it at the Groundings, but it didn't work in a scene," Wiig explained. "Lorne [Michaels] was like, 'I think people would be walking away from you constantly.'" Kind of like poor Aunt Linda's husband with his new hearing aid.
