Kristen Wiig returns to host SNL this weekend – though it’s not much more of a momentous homecoming than it is when you head to your hometown for Christmas just a few weeks after you were there for Thanksgiving. (To further the analogy, Wiig has hosted episodes around both holidays in the past.) Wiig was SNL’s biggest star for most of her seven seasons on the show, while also representing a transitional point in the show’s stardom. Her co-writing and starring in a massive hit like Bridesmaids didn’t inspire her to leave the show in 2011; she waited until the following year, departing at the end of the 37th season in 2012 – and returning to cameo before the year was up. Her post-cast presence on the show was not a Sandleresque rarity; the cameos continued, often occasioned by the returns of castmates like Will Forte, as Wiig also started racking up hosting gigs of her own. This weekend marks her fifth, counting a COVID-year episode where she “hosted” a pre-taped, at-home edition of the show.
This means we can probably expect some kind of Five-Timer-Club joke or reference this weekend, in addition to at least one or two characters from her litany of SNL recurring bits: The Californians, Garth and Kat, Gilly, the Target Lady (though she’s already been revived in a series of actual Target ads), the Secret Word actress, Sue the Surprise-Ruiner, or Penelope the One-Upper. None of these popular bits actually represent Wiig’s best work on the show, which could be weirder and more subtle than the funny voices and catchphrases that got the biggest crowd reactions. This gives her old hosting episodes an interesting (if sometimes maddening) tension between getting to see Wiig do brand-new sketch comedy with a different SNL cast, and being forced to sit through a 14-minute Californians revival where she and Fred Armisen crack each other up. Let’s take a look at her four previous episodes and see what kind of highlights we can find.
When and Why She’s There: Wiig has never really needed much of an excuse to show up at Studio 8H. In 2013, she might have been vaguely promoting the release of her then-upcoming indie Girl Most Likely, but it was ultimately only a blip. Her big Ghostbusters reboot had already come out earlier in the year when she hosted in November 2016. And it’s likely both times she hosted in 2020 – once from home, then for real – were vaguely scheduled around the pandemic-delayed Wonder Woman 1984. Mostly, she’s there for fun.
Era: The post-Wiig eras of SNL have become trickier to delineate as cast members stick around for longer periods, but it is interesting that Wiig’s four previous episodes span basically the entire SNL careers of Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and Cecily Strong. They’re featured players when she hosts in Season 38, and finishing up their time on the show in 2020. That’s part of why the recurring characters on her episodes are so disappointing; it’s much more fun to see her playing around with newer cast members. (See the highlights below for a look at who Wiig vibes best with.)
Time Capsule: Obviously the at-home episode captures a particular moment in time, but it also doesn’t much involve Wiig. She blends into the ensemble for one of the most jarring moments to revisit years later: a post-election sketch from 2016 that’s actually sharp and incisive, showing CNN talking heads stuck on a faux-outrages loop in story after story of then-president-elect Donald Trump violating norm after norm – while no one actually does or says anything of substance about it. Maybe it was understandably not taken particularly well from the show that had Trump hosting as recently as 2015, but it’s still startling to see the show actually making a cogent point in a funny and concise way.
Highlights: Two of Wiig’s best host sketches team her with Cecily Strong for gloriously silly but perfectly detailed character work. In one sketch, two neighbor frenemies simultaneously audition to guest-host QVC, quickly descending into a rage-filled rivalry; in another, Wiig and Strong go on a double date with preteen boys (Bobby Moynihan and I Think You Should Leave’s Tim Robinson during his brief time on the show!). Even a mere decade or so later, it seems unlikely the latter sketch would make it to air, but Wiig and Strong so clearly root the premise in absurdity rather than envelope-pushing. Another half-forgotten sketch puts Wiig together with a young Aidy Bryant as acupuncturists who immediately run into a bloody problem with patient Jason Sudeikis. It’s pretty much just a variation on that old sketch with Dan Aykroyd as Julia Child, but there are enough funny variations, perfectly underplayed by Wiig and Bryant, to keep it laugh-out-loud funny.
Lowlights: See below for the catalog of warmed-over Wiig repeats that clog up these episodes, and think about how much more fun it would have been to see more Cecily-and-Kristen team-ups than the one millionth installment of Secret Word.
Recurring characters: 2013 has The Californians, Garth and Kat, the Target Lady, and Wiig’s Lawrence Welk Show weirdo. The 2016 episode eases up but still includes Secret Word and Sue – and then the non-at-home 2020 episode repeats both of those. (One of the best aspects of the at-home episodes from 2020 is that they didn’t have the kind of live-show audience bump that can be accessed by trotting out a familiar character.) The funniest recurring sketch from her hosting years actually has Wiig stepping outside her era, teaming with McKinnon for an installment of Whiskers R We, the sketch about eccentric cat-peddlers.
Missing from Peacock: Is Wiig the real-life version of her “Don’t Make Me Sing” character? (It’s one of the few who hasn’t been reprised since she left the show.) Every monologue she’s done so far has been musical, including her at-home version. The first one of those from 2013 is missing from Peacock, likely because she was singing a variation on “I’m So Excited” that probably wasn’t cleared for online use. Her monologues in both 2016 and 2020 essentially do the same thing, having Wiig sing a bunch of nonsense. But those other episodes are far enough into the streaming era that they appear to be completely intact, even the musical guests.
How She Did: Viewed in closer proximity, the same-ness of Wiig’s monologues is a little disappointing, though not as dispiriting as greatest hits. Wiig always throws herself back into her SNL work, clearly having a good time doing sketch comedy again – though she’s seemingly become much more prone to “breaking” (cracking up at her colleagues and breaking the illusion of the sketch) since she left the weekly live-comedy grind. That always feels more forgivable from a veteran than a newbie, though, and at their best, Wiig-hosted episodes provide a rush of fantasy-baseball SNL, with no “real” host to work around – just one more all-star on the team. Kate McKinnon went through her episode from earlier this season without leaning too heavily on her old favorites; hopefully Wiig will be inspired to do the same.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.
