Work in Progress

Funny Girl

With her subtly deranged characters — from the way-over-eager Target lady to the one-upping basket-case Penelope to a boozed-up Kathie Lee Gifford and the insecure Judy Grimes,  who punctuates her nervous stuttering with a barrage of “just kidding!” disclaimers– Kristen Wiig is making SNL fun again.

In my opinion, Kristen is holding court as the queen bee of Saturday Night Live these days, killing it in nearly every skit.

The humour in her character portrayals lies in their abrasive tics, which gradually intensify — Wiig’s characters are amusing and skin-crawlingly annoying in direct proportion. And beneath the caricatures, these smartly sketched weirdos are universally recognizable: Penelope is that awful twit whom nobody wants to invite to a house party (though she somehow always shows up); Judy Grimes probably works in your office.

She has also perfected a series of spot-on impersonations — her shifty-eyed Nancy Pelosi is second only to her pants-peeingly perfect take on financial guru Suze Orman. As with her broader caricatures, Wiig’s skill is in mimicking those precise speech patterns and minute physical quirks that allow her to fully embody real-life figures. Even better, Wiig’s picked up where the wonderful Rachel Dratch left off, throwing herself into awesomely absurd roles on a regular basis.

Kristen is someone who takes the little things–tics, accents, weird gestures–and creates a full-on personality out of them. She’s my kind of person. I think we should be best friends.

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