Buy Or Don’t Buy

Of all the recurring characters on SNL, Gilly has by far the most basic of sketches. You could probably make one with a math equation: 3(Forte intro + Moynihan whine + Keenan with broken arms + annoying guest + Wiig) + violence² = sketch. Her catchphrases (’Uh-huh’ and ‘Sorry’) are so simplistic that you can’t even call them catchphrases.

But dammit if the sheer repetition doesn’t get me every time. The ending of each sketch is almost comedy abstract. A funny voice saying a funny word, intercut with a funny face with funny hair. All the random violence is just a cherry on top.

(Also, Gilly has inspired me to come up with a theory where you can tell how good of an actor someone is by what they do with their mouth. By this standard, Kristen Wiig and Rosario Dawson are really good at acting, Will Forte is pretty good, and Bobby Moynihan and Keenan Thompson are not good. I think this theory could really take me somewhere in the Performance Studies field.)

Last night’s Gilly wasn’t as good as the original - the boys were more annoying than funny this time around and the payoff with Forte wasn’t as strong - but the electrocution gag was one of the funniest/scariest violence-against-children jokes I’ve seen this year. And Gilly gave the Nazi salute, which I didn’t even think you could do on network TV.

But apparently a lot of people hate Gilly; Alan Sepinwall called her appearance last night “a contest to figure out which is the least funny current recurring character.” And of all of Kristen Wiig’s (too-many) recurring characters, I’d say she’s only the third-best, right after Virgania Horsen and Penelope. But the show needs a sketch where things can get dark and weird, and Gilly serves that need. What do you guys think?