worst recurring Kristen Wiig character on SNL

half of this 'women of SNL' special seems to be a parade of bad Wiig characters.

seriously wtf is this about

how i would categorize these

straight up hate and hated right away: Shana, Mindy Gracin, Kat
wasn't bad at first but got old quick: Penelope, Gilly, Sue, Dooneese
pretty much enjoy them to some degree every time: Judy Grimes, Aunt Linda, Target Lady

according to Wiig's wikipedia page Lorne now invites her to watch auditions for new cast members with him, i think she's very 'in' with the brass

reading these options, having not seen snl in years and not having any idea what any of this is about, is kinda gratifying

awesome post, great job. tell us how little you watch the simpsons next

lol i love target lady

Penelope makes me physically uncomfortable, fwiw. Worst character on this show since the fuckin cheerleaders

i love Gilly tho

I do like Target Lady, and in small doses Wiig is fine, but it seems like there has been waaay too much of her in almost every sketch lately.

all of the above

which one is Penelope?

Trying to remember a character I hate more than Gilly.

voted Shana

straight up hate and hated right away: Gilly (my absolute least favorite), Target Lady, Sue, Shana (second least favorite)
wasn't bad at first but got old quick: Mindy Gracin
pretty much enjoy them to some degree every time: Aunt Linda, Kat, Judy Grimes
think it's a straight up classic: Penelope

ok watched penelope. Gilly it is.

the thing about Wiig is she's almost always the weird main character in a sketch surrounded by straight men setting her up. i feel like she could do good supporting work or form more duos or groups of characters (but not Garth and Kat, where I feel like she's ust following Armisen's lead). ironically she's done a ton of funny supporting or cameo roles in movies and other shows and is always good in those, and will probably never be the star of a (hit) movie.

i thought that her & bill hader were awesome & funny in "adventureland"

my main issue w/ her on SNL is how samey her characters are & how much they lean on her

she is definitely the biggest threat of stagnating the show

shana is not funny + vile. the welch character might be the best b/c it allows a space of normality b/n the weirdness whereas the others they just have to keep escalating the weirdness and everything in between feels forced.

on this special Wiig just said "the amazing Molly Shannon" and singled out Mary Katherine Gallagher for praise, which explains a lot.

i think they'd lose more stagnation by getting Meyers off the Update desk and/or ditching Armisen's Obama. at least with Pedrad and Elliott getting more and more screentime it feels a little less like Wiig is the only woman on the show.

"lose more stagnation"? sorry for the horribly awkward word choice there.

when did those cold open political sketches become the rule? is 9/11 to blame?

i love love love love love garth & kat! my fav wiig character is virgania horsen, who i think has only done two sketches.

voted for sue. i don't have a problem with wiig characters though... just her ubiquity on the show.

i also love her as one of the "two a-holes."

at least with Pedrad and Elliott getting more and more screentime it feels a little less like Wiig is the only woman on the show.

i'm so mad that abby elliott is now a full-time castmember and the actually funny pedrad is still "featured." r.i.p. jenny slate and the zaftig girl whose name i can't remember.

more Nasim Pedrad = better SNL.

What's the name of her asshole wife character with Sudekis as the asshole husband? That's probably my favorite, next to Target Lady.

I really hate Shana and Penelope.

yeah virgania horsen was my "i could love you" moment with her, but agree that her ubiquity is more a liability than asset in the long run. i think i'd vote shana.

last night at a halloween parade i saw four guys dressed as the lawrence welk sisters and i LOLed

Dooneese is such a bizarre one-note character that makes me rofl every time, yet I can't say I love it because she essentially assumes the role of a prop instead of being a real character.

Sorry guys, she is funny

i agree! i'm just getting sick of her being in every sketch.

I think most people here are in agreement to some degree that she is funny, just less than thrilled with how she's used on the show or how much she's used

pretty sure there was only one Virgania Horsen sketch but they've run it in multiple episodes, as they sometimes do w/ fake commercials.

forgot about Two A-Holes, I love those sketches.

She was great in MacGruber and Adventureland in ways that she's never been on SNL. I don't think she could carry her own film, but I hope to see her in more supporting roles.

re virgania horsen: there was the hot air balloon ride sketch and the pony express sketch.

The Jon Hamm "don't make me sing!" sketch is always funny

^ oh right! I love those too. xp

http://www.hulu.com/watch/47606/saturday-night-live-snl-digital-short-virgania-horsens-pony-express

http://www.hulu.com/watch/59196/saturday-night-live-snl-digital-short-virgania-horsens-hot-air-balloon-rides

ah so i see i am wrong. i don't really regret not making that an option, though, since nobody in their right mind would vote for it.

the "don't make me sing" sketch was ehh, i wonder if they've spent the last few months trying to think of a way to make that a recurring character.

that felt like a stale recurring character after 20 seconds

Ha, I haven't watched SNL in ages so don't recognize most of these (and remember hating Wiig) but this is kind of classic:

http://vimeo.com/15888713

I almost voted by thinking, "Hm, which is the one-note character?" Then I realized they all are. If she'd done every character half as many times, she'd be twice as appealing. Kat and Virgania are the funniest, and by that I don't mean that they're the least-unfunny...but they're also the least ubiquitous.

Kristen Wiig has been great in every movie I've seen her in (Knocked Up, MacGruber, Date Night) but on SNL I can't help but wish her a fiery death. They seem to have no interest in having her play anything other than the One-Bit Crazy Lady. The only running characters on that list I unabashedly love are Garth and Kat, which just reaffirms how great she is when playing WITH people instead of just being some freak in a void everyone stares at.

since i dont watch the show very much it always surprises me (though i really shouldnt be surprised at all) how a character i liked once is actually a recurring character that probably stopped being funny the 2nd time they did it, let alone the 120th

Hate Gilly, Sue is the worst.

Love Target Lady. And whichever the character is that interrupts and tops everyone's stories. She is funny.

That's Penelope.

You can have her.

I work with a girl just like her, lol

Omg...my favorite is the Lawrence Welk baby-arms girl

Her Suze Ormandy is pretty right on. Actually I like her a lot. But Gilly creeps me right out.

Ormandy? Ormond.

orman!

Gilly in a walk.

And I'm with those who like her but think she's over-used.

Orman. Geeeeez.

gilly is based on dory from finding nemo right?

Love pretty much every one of these. Discomfort is the point!

There's def a MadTV quality of surface-level "everyone has to deal with this WACKY character" ish to wiig's stuff.

Whereas the best part about Samurai Tailor or whatever was that everyone seemed kind of cool and understanding about it

btw I had an idea for a thread where everyone predicts ahead of time which recurring sketches will appear in that week's SNL (each person picking five possibles, the person with the most correct guesses wins), but I had no interest in starting it or reading it or voting in it so if anyone else wants to do that, go for it

Or how Phil Hartman would calmly say to Farley, "You know, Matt, we've always supported his writing career" and then Foley tells him to shut his big yapper. Most Wiig skits are like everyone going "WTF IS UP WITH THIS WEIRD PERSON" for three times. I like SNL skits where the weirdness is just sort of accepted--like "What's Up With That" or even Gilly

Target Lady: Don't really remember what her deal is.

Judy Grimes (the "just kidding" lady): I don't love it, but I'm always kind of impressed at her verbal dexterity with this character.

Gilly: The sketch usually isn't funny, but it's not Wiig's fault; in fact, I find the character oddly entrancing.

Sue (the lady who loves surprise parties): Boo.

Shana (the Marilyn Monroe type breathy talking lady): Ugh.

Penelope: Don't remember this one -- I think she was in last year's Taylor Swift episode, but I can't recall the character.

Dooneese (the weird mutant lady on the Lawrence Welk show): Just ... no.

Mindy Gracin (the actress on the game show): Horrible.

Kat (of Garth and Kat, the musical duo with Fred Armisen on Weekend Update): Love Garth and Kat unreservedly.

Aunt Linda (movie review lady on Update): Don't mind her.

thanks for the data dump, stephen ilxor

OH NO METASNARK ABOUT A POSTER WHO ISNT HERE, I HOPE JJJUSTEN DOESNT GIVE ME A YELLOWCARD

btw I had an idea for a thread where everyone predicts ahead of time which recurring sketches will appear in that week's SNL (each person picking five possibles, the person with the most correct guesses wins), but I had no interest in starting it or reading it or voting in it so if anyone else wants to do that, go for it

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/bad%20idea%20jeans.jpg

Just teasing. <3

when did those cold open political sketches become the rule? is 9/11 to blame?

I think the cold open is almost always topical, but I think they too often lean on political stuff that they don't have a sharp enough take on.

OH NO METASNARK ABOUT A POSTER WHO ISNT HERE, I HOPE JJJUSTEN DOESNT GIVE ME A YELLOWCARD

you seriously need Paxil

i'm so mad that abby elliott is now a full-time castmember and the actually funny pedrad is still "featured." r.i.p. jenny slate and the zaftig girl whose name i can't remember.

This is just a seniority thing, no? Elliott started in 2008 and was featured for two seasons before being promoted to full-time. Same with Bobby Moynihan. Nasim Pedrad started in 2009, so she'll probably be promoted next year.

I like pretty much all of these except Judy Grimes and Shana. I guess I'm just an agreeable guy!

I like that the "just kidding" lady and Penelope at least have a lot of fill-in-the-blank room where they have to fill her dialogue with increasingly absurd ideas and word choices, so that there's at least something potentially new and funny every time they're in a sketch. some of the other characters, like Shana, it's really just the same character doing the same thing in a slightly different setting every single time. with Mindy Gracin the setting doesn't even change.

Voted Shana.

yah me too

you seriously need Paxil

― lol tea partiers and their fat fingers (HI DERE), Tuesday, November 2, 2010 11:30 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

worst recurring Kristen Wiig character on SNL... PLUS BICKERING

he doesn't need Paxil, he needs someone to break his capslock key

voted shana too

i kind of like dooneese

dooneese totally cracked me up and weirded me out the first time, but it might be the one here that suffers the most from repetition

a while back i met some really annoying lady with a weird accent working the checkout counter at some store and i thought "wow I hope Kristen Wiig never meets you and turns you into a character"

Jane Lynch episode was decent because they took played-out Wiig characters and didn't make them the entire focus of the sketch: i.e., Lynch's Phyllis Diller character provided a foil for Mindy Gracin; Gilly doubled as a Glee parody.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

decided to vote for Mindy Gracin because really they've made zero effort to vary her or her surroundings from sketch to sketch

Virgania Horsen is like SNL trying to do Tim and Eric, which sounds like a disaster but is actually pretty great! What's the name of the annoying one-uppy lady?

that's Penelope

playing catchup with the last few eps reminds me that her elizabeth hasselbeck is pretty meh too

I like pretty much all of these! It's just that none of them should be repeated too often, which they inevitably are.

her Hasselbeck cracks me the fuck up

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

RIP Gilly ;_;

Dooneese (the weird mutant lady on the Lawrence Welk show)

This one has become a goldmine.

I like all of these characters. I've often thought that I'd like to see Wiig perform Getting Married Today from Company, it seems like it jibes with the nervous babbling that most of her characters do - it seems like the thing that links all her characters is that they cannot stop themselves from talking (except Gilly, I guess, who is eerily quiet)

There's def a MadTV quality of surface-level "everyone has to deal with this WACKY character" ish to wiig's stuff.

― deej snider (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 15:20 (twelve years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Whereas the best part about Samurai Tailor or whatever was that everyone seemed kind of cool and understanding about it

― deej snider (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 2 November 2010 15:21 (twelve years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think this is exactly where the humour comes from from with her characters though, they overwhelm everyone around them and disrupt the format of whatever is supposed to be going on because the say too much.

they say too much

gilly is funny

i'm pro-gilly

I think my favourite Wiig bits on snl were the Ann-Margret throwing a wad of paper into a wastepaper basket/Liza Minelli turning off a lamp sketches, which were kind of a physical version of the excessive babbling thing

Yes to both of those. I liked Gilly, although it was pretty much always the same sketch. I thought I had posted my Gilly = Nancy observation here but it must have been elsewhere.

https://tarheelreader.org/uploads/2013/03/15761-5135e70a144f8.jpg

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xQP4CrsJlEZLHNRkNLEf0JeKPdQ=/0x0:1178x690/1200x800/filters:focal(495x251:683x439)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62739559/Nancy___nc_c181106.tif.1545856050.jpg

yeah, I assumed that Gilly's look and name were consciously drawn from Nancy.

Which one was the group therapy woman?

she is definitely the biggest threat of stagnating the show

Thirteen years ago lol

The biggest threat to the show is the show itself.

legit feeling PTSD looking at the list of characters in that poll

find it fitting that Gilly won this, I had a friend who frequently wore a Gilly t-shirt, whereas my brother hated that sketch. seems to elicit strong feelings one way or the other

Dooneese and Judy Grimes are both unimpeachable

Weird that this got revived just as SNL finally returned to recurring characters with Lisa from Temecula

my favourite recurring sketch on snl was Girlfriends Talk Show, I think that got funnier via repetition, it worked more like a sitcom where the main character is inevitably going to fail in the same way over and over again. I liked the way they'd throw in passing references to stuff they'd discussed in previous editions, like the fact that Aidy Bryant's character's family breed guinea pigs.