‘SNL’ Report Card: Kate McKinnon Is Still The Show’s MVP, But For How Much Longer?

Who: Kate McKinnon
Cast Member Since: 2012

In February 2016, Decider identified Kate McKinnon as the Undisputed MVP of SNL. The accolade was spot on. At that point, McKinnon had already taken over the show in just her 4th full season, and Saturday Night Live was comfortably operating in the less hectic real world of Barack Obama. Her light-hearted impressions of Ellen DeGeneres, Hillary Clinton and Justin Bieber slayed every weekend, as did her original characters and songs. All of which culminated in her first Primetime Emmy win in 2016 – the first for an individual cast member since Dana Carvey twenty-three years earlier in 1993.

Three seasons later, most of which have been under President Donald Trump, McKinnon finds herself in a much different spot. What should have been her golden sunset years at SNL now required her to stand on the pop culture front lines of politics by impersonating many public figures who, in the real world, her politics very clearly align against. The list is long: Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Catherine Cruz, Kellyanne Conway, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham, Rudy Giuliani, a pre-Robert De Niro take on Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and not to mention, a newly “defeated” version of Hillary Clinton which forced her to rethink a strong impression she had been nailing for years. Some worked, others not so much in retrospect.

Alec Baldwin famously said playing President Trump was “agony,” but McKinnon seemed to find a way to keep herself sane. In May 2018, she told GQ, “You can’t be judging someone as you’re embodying them. You have to find the point of connection—something you find delightful. Even if you’re intending to skewer someone, you also have to find something that you truly like about them. If you’re mean, it ain’t fun to watch. And if it ain’t fun to watch, they turn off the TV.” Still, one must wonder if the hold of the Trump administration’s news cycle over late-night comedy took a toll. McKinnon’s newest original characters during this time such as Ms. Rafferty and Shud were great, but felt more in the background compared to the influx of topical humor.

This is a long way of saying that when Variety reminded us back in April that McKinnon’s SNL contract was nearing its end, one couldn’t be surprised she would be ready to walk. Kate would no doubt be going out on top, because really, what is left for her to prove or do on this show? Lorne Michaels and the producers would no doubt love (and prefer) to have her back for the show’s milestone 45th season, but is that what McKinnon wants or needs? A formal decision likely won’t be announced until one or two weeks prior to the show beginning again in the fall, but McKinnon isn’t slowing down in the meantime. She has role in this Summer’s Beatles-themed musical comedy Yesterday, as well as Jay Roach’s upcoming Fox News biopic Fair and Balanced. She will also be busy serving as Executive Producer and star of Hulu’s Elizabeth Holmes series The Dropout.

Regardless of her decision, Kate McKinnon has left an unforgettable mark on Saturday Night Live. Her characters will prove timeless, and how she handled herself and made (at least half) the country laugh during such a divisive period of our country’s history should be a case study in comedy. Now, please sit back and enjoy two Kate moments that don’t get mentioned very often:

Sketch: “Casablanca”
Episode: J.K. Simmons/D’Angelo (1/31/2015)
NOTE: Since its debut in 2013, Cinema Classic has always been a great anthology style sketch with great flexibility. John Mulaney, Julie Louis-Dreyfus, Taraji P. Henson and others have all done great work with the premise, but Kate’s Isla/Casablanca will always be the best. “Oh, NO, Richard, NO!”

Weekend Update Segment: Deenie (Watch on NBC.com)
Episode: Tina Fey & Amy Poehler/Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band (12/19/15)
NOTE: Kate has a large number of Weekend Update characters, with most of the attention going to Olya Povlatsky or Ruth Bader Ginsberg. One of my favorites has always been “somebody’s Mom” Deenie. She’s only trotted Deenie out twice, both of which were in 2016, and I’ve always wondered why we don’t see her more often.

SNL REPORT CARD FOR KATE MCKINNON: 4 Coneys

SCALE:
4 Coneys = Excellent / 3 Coneys = Good / 2 Coneys = Needs Improvement / 1 Coney = Worst

Jason Nummer still wonders what a second SNL season with Brooks Wheelan would have been like. You can follow him on Twitter at @jrnummer.