PAS#4 – New Women of SNL

Of the 14 cast members on Saturday Night Live, only 5 are women. This is similar to the ratio of guys to girls in my engineering classes at Penn State. The women need to make up for their small number and prove that they can be just as funny as men. Now that the beloved Kristen Wiig is gone, who will take her lead female position? The new women have a lot to live up to in order to fill her shoes. I want to talk about two members in particular moving into new roles.

Vanessa Bayer began on the show at the start of the 2010-2011 season. She originally caught my attention with her skit “The Miley Cyrus Show.” She did a “pretty cool” dead on impersonation of Miley Cyrus. From then on I noticed her more in the show and the number of her recurring characters grew: her Gretchen Carlson impression on the “Fox and Friends” parody and one of Moammar Khaddafy’s childhood friends from Weekend Update. This year Vanessa was promoted from simply a “featured” cast member to a recurring one. I’m so glad because she does a great job.

Kate McKinnon debuted on SNL as a featured cast member at the end of the 2012 season during the Sofía Vergara episode as Penelope Cruz in a Pantene commercial parody. She was not in many skits during the last few episodes of the season, but this year she has started right up with lots of important characters. Unlike the other new members that just play minor no-name characters in skits, Kate has landed the role as Ann Romney, the wife of Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. This is huge for Kate because she will have many skit opportunities leading up to the election. Also, if Romney is elected, she will have prime time when they do skits about the first lady. Already I can see her versatility as an actress with her many impressions and accents. I can’t wait to see what else she has in store for us this season.

Although I said I would only talk about two ladies, I cannot pass up the opportunity to mention the comical recurring member Nasim Pedrad. Overall she is a solid and hilarious character who you can count on to do an excellent job in her skits. My favorite skit of hers is when she plays is Kim Kardashian in the “Kardashian Divorce Special” with her line, “Oops I got divorced!” I feel like she hasn’t gotten as much spotlight as previous women, but maybe now that Kristen is gone she will catch a break and really come into her own.

With these three hysterical women, I hope that the two new ladies this year, Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong, can reach the caliber of the others.

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