‘Saturday Night Live’ was not a fixture in my home growing up. My mother turned on ‘In Living Color’ and really, FOX can be pinpointed as the foundation for my sense of humor, but years later I did happen to find myself enjoying that other show on NBC, and it wasn’t long before I had a few crushes on cast members like Bill Hader, but when it comes to who I think may just be the funniest to ever do the damn thing, and to the person from that show who never fails to have my heart, oh that’s Kristen Wiig.
Women in comedy, like with most things, have had to work a thousand times harder to get the same level of respect. Rolling Stone placed three women in their top 10 when they ranked 145 cast members from the show; Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Gilda Radner. All well-deserved, but then you go to Entertainment Weekly, and only two women made their top 10, Radner and Kate McKinnon. On both, Wiig was around the same place; 14th and 13th. For me though, she’s a top 5 contender for a multitude of reasons.
The number one is that she was one of the last cast members to deliver memorable characters. Brad Robinson from The Not Ready for Prime Time Podcast and I discussed the lack of those original characters and why that’s sort of died off in recent years, and what’s replaced them on this week’s episode – and even he noted how Wiig was one of the last to deliver with the likes of Target Lady and Gilly. Those two alone are on par with Debbie Downer and The Church Lady.
Wiig is also one of the SNL loves of my life because of what she’s managed to do outside of the show. It’s always interesting how well some of these silly actors can masterfully transition into drama, and Wiig is definitely one of those people. Her character in ‘The Skeleton Twins’ came at a time in my life when I needed someone flawed in that way on screen most. Which, speaking of – the same can be said about Annie Walker, her character in ‘Bridesmaids.’ I love and relish in representation when it comes to the flawed human experience for obvious reasons.
Back to Wiig in SNL though. There she crafted characters and showcased the silliness that we all need more of in our own lives. As we get older, people tend to lose that childlike wonder, something me and Mike Valdes spoke about back on the 100th episode. Wiig, and those like her, remind us that it’s okay to make those weird faces, move our bodies in wild ways, and most importantly, laugh at ourselves.
I’m not one to take most things seriously, and whenever I feel bad about that – I think of Wiig’s Penelope or her as Liza battling a lamp and it reminds myself to move weirdly or crack a joke because life is random, so why shouldn’t I be?
Crushgasm 