Saturday Night Live is closing out its 47th season this year. With that has come some shock departures from the cast. Namely, the first openly lesbian cast member, Kate McKinnon who has been on the show officially since 2013.
McKinnon has been one of the most loved and respected cast members. Her spot-on impressions, wide range of loveable characters and signature salute will be sorely missed.
In honour of almost a decade on the show, here are some of McKinnon’s best sketches.
Dyke and Fats
This 2014 sketch is a parody for a 70’s cop show that follows the adventures of Les Dykawitz (McKinnon) and Chubbina Fatzarelli (Aidy Bryant). The duo go by their nicknames, ‘Dyke’ and ‘Fats’, which has become a classic skit. The straight faced portrayal from McKinnon and Bryant make this even funnier. The clip has over 850,000 views on YouTube.
Close Encounters
One of McKinnon’s many recurring characters is Ms Rafferty, who claims to have been abducted by aliens. We first met this weird and wonderful woman in December 2015, in a sketch with McKinnon, Ceily Strong and guest star Ryan Gosling.
While Strong and Gosling seem to have had a heavenly and enlightening experience, McKinnon’s character hilariously involves activities such as ’sitting on a stool while 40 grey aliens gently batted my knockers.’
This scene is made even better when all four of McKinnon’s co-stars break into laughs. Gosling was first to break and it starts to get hard for him to finish his lines. Amazingly, this clip has over 53 million views on YouTube.
Hillary, Actually
One of McKinnon’s most famous impressions came during the 2016 US Presidential election, when McKinnon was the go-to Hillary Clinton impressionist. She has many sketches as Clinton, but one of her more famous ones came during December 2016.
As a nod to the hit Christmas film ‘Love, Actually’, we see Clinton using Mark’s idea of writing a speech on cardboard sheets. But, instead of a proclamation of love, we see Clinton begging voters not to vote for Trump. The sketch has over 9 million views.
Themyscira
This 2017 sketch saw duo McKinnon and Bryant play two lesbians who wash upon Wonder Woman’s all-female island. Despite acting very ‘gay’, the duo come to realise that none of the Amazonians are lesbians.
McKinnon and Bryant get more frustrated, until Diana (Gal Gadot) passionately kisses McKinnon, coming out of the kiss to say, ‘I feel nothing’. It’s the perfectly funny and queer sketch, that stars our very own queer comedian.
Calvin Klein Ad
When it comes to impressions, no-one is better than McKinnon. During her time on Saturday Night Live, McKinnon has transformed into so many famous faces. One of her most notable was her ‘Calvin Klein Ad’ sketch in 2015, where she played Justin Bieber. The sketch currently has over 10 million views.
Other notable impressions McKinnon did were Jeff Sessions, Ellen DeGeneres and Ruth Bade Ginsburg, Elizabeth Warren and Jodie Foster.