Saturday Night Live guest host Kristen Wiig brought back a couple familiar faces from her days on cast, none more brilliant – at least in the character’s own mind – than Mindy Elise Grayson, the Broadway diva with more practiced grace than actual brains.
In a vintage game show bit supposedly from 1964, Wiig’s stagey thespian is too self-involved to grasp the concept of “Secret Word.” When the password, uh, secret word, is “branch,” Grayson intones “braaanch.” You get the idea. Nice seeing Wiig back in action anyway, along with Cecily Strong’s tight-dressed Gina Lollobrigida-type with exaggerated Italianisms and face slaps.
Watch it above.
Wiig was featured in two skits – one didn’t make it on the air, but you can see it below – that show her obvious affection for those NPR ladies of ’90s-era SNLers Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon (think Schweddy Balls, with a pre-Trump Alec Baldwin).
In the first of the two, Wiig teams with Kate McKinnon in their “Whiskers R We” routine, appearing in a commercial for a cat adoption agency and giving the actresses an excuse to share the screen with a variety of adorable kittens. “Alan is a Himalayan,” says McKinnon in the affectless, self-amused tone passed down from the NPR hosts, “and you can find him a layin’ on the couch.”
Here it is:
In an even clearer nod to the classic Schweddy Balls, Wiig, in that familiar flat speech and a shaggy holiday sweater, runs through some of her favorite Thanksgiving foods. “Mmm, stuffing martinis. Yes, please.” And because no Thanksgiving would be complete without candied yams, Wiig gives a shout-out to both the tater and a long-lamented SCTV comedian. “Now we’re having fun.”
But not even John Candy could keep this one from getting the Lorne Michaels ax. Watch it here:
