Is Kate McKinnon the new MVP on Saturday Night Live?

When Kristin Wiig decided to depart Saturday Night Live at the end of her contract last season, there was almost universal teeth-gnashing and hair-pulling (yes, there are some who are glad to see her gone) about who could ever replace her, and if the show would ever be funny again. Okay, we usually say that last part after every episode, but in Wiig’s case she could pretty much save any sketch. The viewers knew it, the writers knew it. So how could the show ever replace someone who had become its Most Valuable Player?

Towards the end of last season, a new face was added to the Featured Players on the show, after Paul Brittain’s sudden exit. Surprisingly, the newly open spot was filled by a woman, Kate McKinnon, a virtual unknown to the viewers of SNL. Turns out McKinnon has had plenty of experience doing sketch comedy, appearing on all three seasons of Logo’s Big Gay Sketch Show (McKinnon is the first openly gay female performer on SNL, by the way), and was also a regular performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City. McKinnon also won a NewNowNext Award in 2009 as Best Rising Comic. With these impressive credentials, would McKinnon be able to put all of that talent to good use on SNL?

Look back at her debut on April 7th when she appeared as Tabatha Coffey on the spoof of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live! She absolutely nailed the impression and generated a lot of excitement with her debut. The season ended not long after that, but McKinnon wasn’t given much to do on the last couple of shows, and she was virtually unseen in the first two episodes of the new season.

But with the third episode of the year, McKinnon was back and rarin’ to go. McKinnon showed us on her first show that she’s a great celebrity impersonator, and she demonstrated that talent once again with the Bond 50 commercial in which she played “Bond girls” Jodie Foster and Ellen Degeneres. The Foster impression was good, but her Degeneres was spot on hilarious.

She followed that with a very brief, but funny, take on MSNBC’s S.E. Cupp. I’ve only seen Cupp one time on Real Time with Bill Maher. McKinnon had the look down, and pretty much nailed Cupp’s personality.

That was followed immediately by another excellent filmed segment with McKinnon portraying the Long Island Medium. I’ve only ever seen commercials for this show, and McKinnon and the writers got everything down to perfection. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear this was the real Theresa Caputo.

McKinnon had a short turn as a Cockney pub waitress in a later sketch, but her pièce de résistance came on the Weekend Update. Big news was made recently after a woman in Spain apparently took it upon herself to “restore” a faded and peeling fresco of Jesus, except she had no formal training and pretty much destroyed the artwork with her “Monkey Jesus” restoration. After people were drawn to the church to see the travesty, the woman felt she should profit from her artwork. McKinnon portrayed the woman, Cecilia Giminez, explaining her work and why she wanted the money. The bit was hysterical and holds up to repeat viewings.

McKinnon has proven that she can do great impressions of real people, so the question now is does she have any original characters in her arsenal? She did have characters on Big Gay Sketch Show, but it’s doubtful she’ll bring a character like Fitzwilliam, a boy who wants a vagina, to SNL. To really thrive on the show, she’s going to have to develop characters that can be used over and over again. So far, I think McKinnon has the potential to be the next Kristin Wiig as long as she can mix her own original characters in with the celebrity impersonations. We will be watching closely, but for the time being, I’m going to crown McKinnon as the show’s new MVP.