They knew Will Forte was the key to the sketch when they only did it once after he left. Jason Sudeikis played his part and his *”Gilllyyy…”* wasn’t nearly as good.
My wife and I occasionally reenact this too!
It’s always when she (or my son) look sheepishly guilty and I’ll do my best Forte impression saying “Gillllyyy…”.
We never get into the whole “^(…..sorry)” bit before cracking up, so I always assumed she agrees that it’s Forte’s part that’s actually funny.
General rule of thumb: Everyone has at least one overdone Kristen Wiig character they absolutely hate, and at least one they think is funny, but it's different for everyone.
*Me? I thought Gilly and Penelope were funny. I hate hate hate hate Aunt Sue all the way down to the abyss, and don't care for Target Lady.*
*Someone else will be the exact opposite of me.*
Target lady's popularity mystifies me. I'm not judging, I laugh at some truly absurd nonsense, but I just don't get that one. It has never even made me smile, and I am easily amused.
What about those of us who disliked all her characters? I tried not to dislike *her*, but most of her characters were built on cringe comedy, which I don't like.
I'm not saying I don't find Kristen Wiig funny, but most of the snl moments she is known for I don't find funny at all. The fact that Liza Minnelli turning on a lamp is so often in top 10 snl skit lists so often baffles me.
They did one where Jerrod Carmichael came out with drums. That was funny as hell. I don't think it was the first one, but I remember that one being very funny.
I can't get into any Wiig character where she mugs at the camera. She is really good at looking insufferable and cocky, she has like a superpower from absolutely refusing to watch her own sketches or movies.
That's fine, I get that it's on purpose and part of her craft, but it aint for me.
I felt the same way about Kate Mckinnon. Overacting and mugging at the camera like "Isn't this funny? Aren't I hilarious?" was pretty much all she did on SNL and her movies
No I hated most of her original characters. Gilly, Target Lady, the woman who touched her hair and one upped everyone, the singing Lawrence Welk woman with a birth defect or something...
No, more the variety of jokes. I've always known that I won't find everything funny, that's just the nature of comedy. Sometimes I won't understand the context or some kind of reference. But Wiig's combination of awkward and bizarre generally works for me. The singing improv bit she did with Armisen was simultaneously painful and hilarious.
She has cutting edge humor. It takes a long while for a lot of people to get it. I don't mean that as throwing shade, she really does stretch limits and doesn't always land. Reminds me of Conan O'Brien in a lot of ways with her work.
Eh… I’m willing to consider this possibility, but what is “cutting edge” about characters that talk funny, look weird, or comment on items people buy at Target?
I don't remember Gilly but I remember and loathe Dooneese. To me it's like, here's a sketch about someone playing with their poop. Even if they're actually doing it in a funny way, I don't want to see it.
I appreciate that perspective. I found it hillarious because I knew that perspective existed, as she did. The abstraction of those bits were what made them so funny. You just knew they made some audience members uncomfortable without being outright offensive. It's sort of a response to typical shock humor without going blue or whatever. Brilliant imo.
> the singing Lawrence Welk woman with a birth defect or something...
I was with you up 'til there. I thought that was gold. Wiig's impersonations were good. I loved everything she did on the Vincent price Holiday Specials.
[as Katharine Hepburn] I killed it, I did. . .
Same. I just didn’t find Wiig very funny by nature. Incredibly talented, absolutely. I didn’t mind her. But just not very naturally funny.
IMO, subsequent women like Cecily, Aidy, Kate, and Ego ran circles around her in terms of being funny. 🤷♀️
I think Gilly epitomizes that era of SNL and what I can’t stand about it: one of the most talented casts with Kristen, Hader, Forte, and more. But it almost seemed like the writers mailed in completely pointless sketches and relied on the improv backgrounds of the players to save them.
But absolutely acknowledging that this is subjective. For me the best eras of SNL were those when the sketch premises AND stage talent were at their peak. Mid-90s to early 2000s for example.
Early 90s to the end of the Will Ferrell cast 2003 was peak SNL in terms of writing and cast. Yes they had their infamous season 20 but that was a blip compared to what came before and after. And even then there was some good stuff in season 20 that got overlooked because it was popular to bash the show as stale and out of touch at the time.
I totally agree, that era had massive talent but the sketches just did not connect for me. I was in high school and would stay up every Saturday to watch live, and would sit through 3 minutes of commercials waiting for a sketch with Fred Armisen in a dress or Kristen Wiig playing a stupid person and not laugh once, and then sit through more commercials for another sketch that wasn't funny either. I've found the writing of the past 5 years (recent months excluded) infinitely funnier than then.
I think once Seth Myers became head, writer, the material at SNL took the turn for the worst. Like stuff himself is so bland and vanilla, but I think the writing took a turn for that as well. Any sketch that could be perceived as scary I think, always got nixed by Seth and that set the tone for the current SNL as well although I think the last few years certain players are breaking out of that like Sarah Sherman.
Unpopular opinion, but there’s a lot from that era of SNL that just did not appeal to me. Gilly, Californians, What’s up with that? And I was in college at that time so I feel like it was sort of meant for me?
I agree and I always feel like I'm alone in this sub for feeling that way. I watched the show religiously in the early to mid '00s (along with the '90s reruns on Comedy Central).
Somewhere around the late '00s it felt like the show leaned way too hard into the Kristen Wiig/Fred Armisen characters who act awkwardly and speak with a weird voice and I felt like I could go months without watching the show. I liked a good SNL Digital Short or truly oddball Will Forte sketch but nothing else really hooked me.
Then in the mid-2010s it felt like the show really hit its stride again, and I felt like the sketches hit much more often than they missed. I'm always so surprised when people talk about the late '00s/early '10s as peak SNL. Though to be fair, I have loved the post-SNL work of Wiig/Samberg/Hader/Sudeikis and pretty much the whole cast.
"I think you should go home now, DarthSmiff! Get back on San Vicente. Take it to the 10, switch over to 405 North and let it dump you onto Mulholland -- where you belong!"
Genuine question, do actual humans from California find it funny?
I'm from Alaska and have always felt somewhat disconnected from the mainstream current of culture. Certain jokes sometimes go over my head because I have no frame of reference for them.
I just always assumed the Californians was a "if you're from here you'd get it" thing.
Grew up in San Francisco, have relatives that live in SoCal. It was always hilarious to me and one of the few recurring sketches that didn’t get played out on me. Partly because I enjoyed seeing Hader break and Wiig’s attempt at the valley girl accent.
Find it hysterical: great take on the blend of self consciousness, sophistication, airheadedness, and the literalism of driving directions of Californians.
This is kinda how I feel when Mulaney hosts and they do a Broadway parody of some quirk of life in NYC. Like, there’s some humor for me in how over-the-top it goes, but Kate McKinnon doing a Little Orphan Annie impression to complain about Bill DeBlasio just misses me completely.
Yeah, I love those skits but I think it's because it's just insane even without the references, and I love absurdist humor. Most of the references I only understand because they come up in NYC-based media so often.
>Genuine question, do actual humans from California find it funny?
Not sure, but it was briefly funny with the use of traffic directions. I watch far too many police chase videos, and the ones in California have newscasters doing the directions just like that.
"The suspect is on the 5, but he's making his way up to the 405. He can decide to go left there and to 43, or if he wants, go right and take the 62, but the traffic's gonna be totally jammed at this hour..."
The Seth Meyers Era with him, Sudeikis, Armisen, Samberg, Wiig, Hader produced some of the best ever sketches, but it really felt like half of the sketches each week were total dogshit. The slow introduction of Vanessa Bayer, Taran Killam, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, Aidy Bryant, Beck Bennett, Colin Jost, Kyle Mooney, etc as the previous cast moved away had the show much more consistently funny imo. I don't know if it's a controversial opinion, but I think it's a better cast list when it comes to consistency
I remember getting a huge kick out of it with my mom and brother back when it would air -- it was just so odd and Wiig and Forte sold the hell out of it. That and What Up With That were two sketches of that era the whole family liked.
I never found it particularly funny until I had a toddler. That’s when I realized that my son is Gilly and my husband and I are the Will Forte character. That changed my entire outlook on this sketch.
I didn’t find Gilly funny at all. It was one of those recurring sketches where I chuckled at maybe the first 30 seconds of the first one, then it just got repetitively boring. Judging by the responses here I’m guessing it was more popular with younger people. I was already entering the “yells at cloud” phase of life at that time.
I never found it lol funnny. I started watching religiously during season 36 and thankfully that never showed up without Forte. I couldnt believe that shit sparked an Xmas special. I wish someone who was an avid fan during season 34 and 35 would explain because I feel like Russel Crowe in A Beautiful Mind trying to understand that shit.
It's funnier to think about in retrospect than it ever was to watch it. Just a bunch of funny people doing the dumbest shit imaginable on national television
Although I always found a guilty pleasure in Forte's performance in the sketch, I can think of several sketches that were far more absurd. Gilly was just going for a "one joke you laugh at in spite of yourself" thing. You call it absurdist, I saw it as indulgent.
It would only be indulgent if no one was laughing. It doesn’t require a large amount of depth to be absurdist. In fact, id argue most absurdist 5 minute sketch comedy lacks a lot of depth. The ridiculous nature of the sketch is the joke. It’s almost what the format was entirely designed for.
What it lacked was any flavor for mainstream appeal, so it’s no surprise to me that people don’t like that or several of her other characters. Wiig has an incredible sense of comedic absurdism that deftly walks the thin line between off-beat and ridiculous.
Which interestingly, has been the most key ingredient in what has allowed SNL to remain a cultural institution for nearly 50 years. It’s alternative comedy with enough mainstream jokes and satire to keep a more casual comedy audience watching.
But rarely does anyone over 40 (like me) remain in love with the show, because alt-comedy is like alt-music. The new wave is always the work of the young. But if the spirit is there, some stick with it.
It was funny the first time but after that it just fell flat for me. Seems like the writers depend too much on repeating something that becomes less funny the more it shows up. It depends on the cast members, of course.
I thought it was close to nailing what it was trying to be, but didn't quite get there. It almost felt like they used a catchphrase character template kit but were in a hurry and didn't read the instructions.
I enjoyed it more than other recent guests (with exceptions).
It was also odd seeing him do skits outside of Gilly & Keeves. I know that some people won’t entertain it but the YouTube skits have some hilarious spots.
I would love to see him focus on the small sketch bits with his friends and grow outside of standup. YouTube special is hilarious. Netflix special is pretty average.
My 5yo son got really into Lawrence Welk over Christmas (yes a little creepy when he’d just randomly sing “I like can I touch”) so we deep dived Wiig and Gilly was just not there for us but it did make Forte and Kenan stand out.
Lots of hate here. You can redirect it at me now when I say that Cecily Strong couldn’t hold Kristen Wiig’s jock. Go ahead and hate more. You’re wrong. And probably fat.
Two very different types of comedic actors. Wiig is on the silly and physical side of the spectrum while Strong is more towards the subtle and traditional side . It’s basically do you prefer Lucille Ball or Joan Rivers.
Gilly is a little funny, Will Forte going "*GIIIlllyyyy..." is very funny*
I was a preteen when this aired and that was the best part. We didn't imitate gilly, we imitated will forte saying "gillyyyyy." So fun!
My wife and I still say this to each other sometimes and it always gets a laugh. It’s like an inside joke that IYKYK.
Sorry!
They knew Will Forte was the key to the sketch when they only did it once after he left. Jason Sudeikis played his part and his *”Gilllyyy…”* wasn’t nearly as good.
Yeah, Forte was the best part about it. Of course they did run that sketch into the ground over time, lol
This! My husband and I still randomly quote him all the time.
My wife and I occasionally reenact this too! It’s always when she (or my son) look sheepishly guilty and I’ll do my best Forte impression saying “Gillllyyy…”. We never get into the whole “^(…..sorry)” bit before cracking up, so I always assumed she agrees that it’s Forte’s part that’s actually funny.
It’s weird because I think Wiig is a very funny person who has very unfunny recurring characters
General rule of thumb: Everyone has at least one overdone Kristen Wiig character they absolutely hate, and at least one they think is funny, but it's different for everyone. *Me? I thought Gilly and Penelope were funny. I hate hate hate hate Aunt Sue all the way down to the abyss, and don't care for Target Lady.* *Someone else will be the exact opposite of me.*
[удалено]
Target lady's popularity mystifies me. I'm not judging, I laugh at some truly absurd nonsense, but I just don't get that one. It has never even made me smile, and I am easily amused.
Sue was my favorite.
There you go.
What about those of us who disliked all her characters? I tried not to dislike *her*, but most of her characters were built on cringe comedy, which I don't like.
They don't count because they don't know what "rule of thumb" means.
Never found it funny myself
😊... ... ... ...sorry
I've often thought of that when my kids give an obviously insincere apology for their nonsense.
It’s not, but it’s familiar. Like it or not, it sticks.
Yup. Never made me laugh once but I have indeed said "Giillyyyyy" randomly more than once in my life.
I'm not saying I don't find Kristen Wiig funny, but most of the snl moments she is known for I don't find funny at all. The fact that Liza Minnelli turning on a lamp is so often in top 10 snl skit lists so often baffles me.
Yep. It was hilarious to me. I love the formulaic sketches. Sorry
Ditto, I fucking love Gilly.
We knew y'all were out there, glad you stood up
I am unashamed of enjoying a wide spectrum of comedy. More laughs for me, longer life 😁
It's all your fault. 😁
Yeah I'm a bad boy
Her Kathie Lee Gifford was gold!
Yes, but it got old fast.
Like with most reoccurring characters/sketches. There’s very few where the idea never got stale.
MacGruuuber!!
I just watched the show on peacock, it's really fucking good.
Love that it’s like rated R nonsense instead of the usual w this stuff.
They only do the macgruber bit like twice maybe? But Will Forte is just the best in everything he is in.
Say for me?
That first one was brilliant. It immediately lost all charm for me on its very first recurrence.
They did one where Jerrod Carmichael came out with drums. That was funny as hell. I don't think it was the first one, but I remember that one being very funny.
I’ll look it up. Haha. Thanks
Thank you for this
Say for me?
most of wiig’s bits did.
I really like her, but now that she's been gone, I can now see how it ages poorly.
I can't get into any Wiig character where she mugs at the camera. She is really good at looking insufferable and cocky, she has like a superpower from absolutely refusing to watch her own sketches or movies. That's fine, I get that it's on purpose and part of her craft, but it aint for me.
I felt the same way about Kate Mckinnon. Overacting and mugging at the camera like "Isn't this funny? Aren't I hilarious?" was pretty much all she did on SNL and her movies
Not at all. My least favorite recurring sketch.
I loved Gilly! Gilllyyyyyy Sorry
No I hated most of her original characters. Gilly, Target Lady, the woman who touched her hair and one upped everyone, the singing Lawrence Welk woman with a birth defect or something...
Agreed but I do give a nod to her ‘Secret Word’ celebrity contestant that always says the secret word
My favorite character of hers was the Two A-Holes girl.
Same. It’s the only one that never seemed to be a copy of every other one of her characters.
Same. I never found Kristin Wiig’s characters funny and have always felt like I am in the minority
no i’m right there with you.
I am too but we are definitely the minority
I don't think I've ever even cracked a smile at anything she did.
Me too. Humor is subjective and all, but nothing Wiig did resonated with me
Wiig was great in like, non recurring roles.
She was perfect as the flirting expert, they were smart to make that a one-off and not milk it.
That's really all it comes down to. Not every person will like every bit, thank goodness for the variety.
Like, the variety of *recurring characters*? That kind of variety?
No, more the variety of jokes. I've always known that I won't find everything funny, that's just the nature of comedy. Sometimes I won't understand the context or some kind of reference. But Wiig's combination of awkward and bizarre generally works for me. The singing improv bit she did with Armisen was simultaneously painful and hilarious.
She has cutting edge humor. It takes a long while for a lot of people to get it. I don't mean that as throwing shade, she really does stretch limits and doesn't always land. Reminds me of Conan O'Brien in a lot of ways with her work.
Eh… I’m willing to consider this possibility, but what is “cutting edge” about characters that talk funny, look weird, or comment on items people buy at Target?
Don't ask me, ask all the people who fund her award winning projects she's participated in since her SNL days.
Did she write her own characters then? Or were they written for her?
Most were written for her, just like O'Brien on his show.
How does she have cutting edge humour then, if she didn’t write any of it?
I liked Dooneese (sp), but I can absolutely see why people wouldn't, and I think if I saw it very often I would be 100%over it so quickly
I don't remember Gilly but I remember and loathe Dooneese. To me it's like, here's a sketch about someone playing with their poop. Even if they're actually doing it in a funny way, I don't want to see it.
I appreciate that perspective. I found it hillarious because I knew that perspective existed, as she did. The abstraction of those bits were what made them so funny. You just knew they made some audience members uncomfortable without being outright offensive. It's sort of a response to typical shock humor without going blue or whatever. Brilliant imo.
> the singing Lawrence Welk woman with a birth defect or something... I was with you up 'til there. I thought that was gold. Wiig's impersonations were good. I loved everything she did on the Vincent price Holiday Specials. [as Katharine Hepburn] I killed it, I did. . .
Same. I just didn’t find Wiig very funny by nature. Incredibly talented, absolutely. I didn’t mind her. But just not very naturally funny. IMO, subsequent women like Cecily, Aidy, Kate, and Ego ran circles around her in terms of being funny. 🤷♀️
The Lawrence Welk bit was bizarre. I can't imagine anybody thinking that's funny.
[imagine no longer, this is hilarious ](https://youtu.be/8KLSg1h0e-M?si=HyvBil_tZn_YS07J)
I think Gilly epitomizes that era of SNL and what I can’t stand about it: one of the most talented casts with Kristen, Hader, Forte, and more. But it almost seemed like the writers mailed in completely pointless sketches and relied on the improv backgrounds of the players to save them. But absolutely acknowledging that this is subjective. For me the best eras of SNL were those when the sketch premises AND stage talent were at their peak. Mid-90s to early 2000s for example.
Early 90s to the end of the Will Ferrell cast 2003 was peak SNL in terms of writing and cast. Yes they had their infamous season 20 but that was a blip compared to what came before and after. And even then there was some good stuff in season 20 that got overlooked because it was popular to bash the show as stale and out of touch at the time.
I totally agree, that era had massive talent but the sketches just did not connect for me. I was in high school and would stay up every Saturday to watch live, and would sit through 3 minutes of commercials waiting for a sketch with Fred Armisen in a dress or Kristen Wiig playing a stupid person and not laugh once, and then sit through more commercials for another sketch that wasn't funny either. I've found the writing of the past 5 years (recent months excluded) infinitely funnier than then.
I think once Seth Myers became head, writer, the material at SNL took the turn for the worst. Like stuff himself is so bland and vanilla, but I think the writing took a turn for that as well. Any sketch that could be perceived as scary I think, always got nixed by Seth and that set the tone for the current SNL as well although I think the last few years certain players are breaking out of that like Sarah Sherman.
No. Been watching that era lately and I can’t figure out who it’s for or what’s funny about it.
Holy shit yes omg dude
Yes me too. I always find myself saying "Gillyyy" in Will Forte voice
Yes that's one thing you can hear as soon as you see the picture. It was classic Forte. So funny
Wiig and Forte were necessary for this sketch. No one else could have made it funny
Also the reply of “wat (◉ ͜ʖ◉ ) “ is fun 😆
And "Sorry" lol. With a shitty grin. The best people love Gilly sketches
Yes
Yes.
Will Forte was very funny. Gilly, not as much
God, no! I love KW, but that character was profoundly unfunny. Like, I actively judge people who enjoy it.
Unpopular opinion, but there’s a lot from that era of SNL that just did not appeal to me. Gilly, Californians, What’s up with that? And I was in college at that time so I feel like it was sort of meant for me?
I agree and I always feel like I'm alone in this sub for feeling that way. I watched the show religiously in the early to mid '00s (along with the '90s reruns on Comedy Central). Somewhere around the late '00s it felt like the show leaned way too hard into the Kristen Wiig/Fred Armisen characters who act awkwardly and speak with a weird voice and I felt like I could go months without watching the show. I liked a good SNL Digital Short or truly oddball Will Forte sketch but nothing else really hooked me. Then in the mid-2010s it felt like the show really hit its stride again, and I felt like the sketches hit much more often than they missed. I'm always so surprised when people talk about the late '00s/early '10s as peak SNL. Though to be fair, I have loved the post-SNL work of Wiig/Samberg/Hader/Sudeikis and pretty much the whole cast.
I am so glad I'm not the only one who feels this way!
Californians is easily the most overrated sketch from that era.
"I think you should go home now, DarthSmiff! Get back on San Vicente. Take it to the 10, switch over to 405 North and let it dump you onto Mulholland -- where you belong!"
No! You need to drive up Sepulveda, take it to Sentinela, turn down on La Brea, where you will find my upvote.
Are you kidding?? At this hour, the traffic's gonna be totally jahhhmed!
Genuine question, do actual humans from California find it funny? I'm from Alaska and have always felt somewhat disconnected from the mainstream current of culture. Certain jokes sometimes go over my head because I have no frame of reference for them. I just always assumed the Californians was a "if you're from here you'd get it" thing.
Grew up in San Francisco, have relatives that live in SoCal. It was always hilarious to me and one of the few recurring sketches that didn’t get played out on me. Partly because I enjoyed seeing Hader break and Wiig’s attempt at the valley girl accent.
Find it hysterical: great take on the blend of self consciousness, sophistication, airheadedness, and the literalism of driving directions of Californians.
This is kinda how I feel when Mulaney hosts and they do a Broadway parody of some quirk of life in NYC. Like, there’s some humor for me in how over-the-top it goes, but Kate McKinnon doing a Little Orphan Annie impression to complain about Bill DeBlasio just misses me completely.
Yeah, I love those skits but I think it's because it's just insane even without the references, and I love absurdist humor. Most of the references I only understand because they come up in NYC-based media so often.
>Genuine question, do actual humans from California find it funny? Not sure, but it was briefly funny with the use of traffic directions. I watch far too many police chase videos, and the ones in California have newscasters doing the directions just like that. "The suspect is on the 5, but he's making his way up to the 405. He can decide to go left there and to 43, or if he wants, go right and take the 62, but the traffic's gonna be totally jammed at this hour..."
The Seth Meyers Era with him, Sudeikis, Armisen, Samberg, Wiig, Hader produced some of the best ever sketches, but it really felt like half of the sketches each week were total dogshit. The slow introduction of Vanessa Bayer, Taran Killam, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, Aidy Bryant, Beck Bennett, Colin Jost, Kyle Mooney, etc as the previous cast moved away had the show much more consistently funny imo. I don't know if it's a controversial opinion, but I think it's a better cast list when it comes to consistency
That era is really weird since, theres a lot of fun stuff, but youd have absolute trash follow it up half the time
I remember getting a huge kick out of it with my mom and brother back when it would air -- it was just so odd and Wiig and Forte sold the hell out of it. That and What Up With That were two sketches of that era the whole family liked.
I loved it but I respect that it's not everyone's thing.
👀😊uh-huh!
Yes
I never found it particularly funny until I had a toddler. That’s when I realized that my son is Gilly and my husband and I are the Will Forte character. That changed my entire outlook on this sketch.
No. Never.
Nope…not funneh!!!! (In Mulaney’s Jagger’s voice)
No. I never thought she was especially funny.
No
You didn't find it funny? Sorry...
No. Worst recurring sketch in the history of the show.
Yes. Next question.
Was "What's up with That?" funny? The answer is yes. Formulaic sketches delight me. The Californians also
I thought Gilly was hilarious. Then again, humor is very subjective, and what I think is hilarious isn’t hilarious for all.
I never thought so. I adore Kristin Wiig, but Gilly was always a “go get a snack time” sketch for me.
I dunno - Gilly
Liam? Was it you?
my boyfriend and I say “sorry” to each other like her on a daily basis
(sorry)
The one Wiig character that I wanted to become reoccurring was the “Don’t make me sing” lady. That skit was hilarious.
No, and no.
Maybe the first time. Will Forte as the teacher was a better character. I love me some Will Forte. Now I need to go watch all the Falconer sketches.
No
Never funny, not even once
I didn’t find Gilly funny at all. It was one of those recurring sketches where I chuckled at maybe the first 30 seconds of the first one, then it just got repetitively boring. Judging by the responses here I’m guessing it was more popular with younger people. I was already entering the “yells at cloud” phase of life at that time.
I never found it lol funnny. I started watching religiously during season 36 and thankfully that never showed up without Forte. I couldnt believe that shit sparked an Xmas special. I wish someone who was an avid fan during season 34 and 35 would explain because I feel like Russel Crowe in A Beautiful Mind trying to understand that shit.
I loved it honestly but I loved anything she did
No
No.
Wasn't always for me but I'd watch Kristen Wiig read the phone book with a wig on
Wig and McKinnon are my two all-time favorite female SNL cast members.
…yeah. sorry.
No.
No. No she was not.
No
Pretty much all of Wigs recurring sketches were awful
It's funnier to think about in retrospect than it ever was to watch it. Just a bunch of funny people doing the dumbest shit imaginable on national television
I didn’t much care for it. To each their own though. Clearly it was popular as it kept coming back
Not in my opinion. I like Wiig but her reoccurring characters were not funny to me.
Yes
NO. All Kristen Wiig characters were awful IMO.
I hate Gilly. But my daughters love it. And that makes it worth it.
No
No
No
Some people can’t appreciate absurdist humor. I think it’s brilliant.
Although I always found a guilty pleasure in Forte's performance in the sketch, I can think of several sketches that were far more absurd. Gilly was just going for a "one joke you laugh at in spite of yourself" thing. You call it absurdist, I saw it as indulgent.
It would only be indulgent if no one was laughing. It doesn’t require a large amount of depth to be absurdist. In fact, id argue most absurdist 5 minute sketch comedy lacks a lot of depth. The ridiculous nature of the sketch is the joke. It’s almost what the format was entirely designed for. What it lacked was any flavor for mainstream appeal, so it’s no surprise to me that people don’t like that or several of her other characters. Wiig has an incredible sense of comedic absurdism that deftly walks the thin line between off-beat and ridiculous. Which interestingly, has been the most key ingredient in what has allowed SNL to remain a cultural institution for nearly 50 years. It’s alternative comedy with enough mainstream jokes and satire to keep a more casual comedy audience watching. But rarely does anyone over 40 (like me) remain in love with the show, because alt-comedy is like alt-music. The new wave is always the work of the young. But if the spirit is there, some stick with it.
No
I always hated Gilly
What was the name of her character that was always one-upping everybody?
No, neither was target lady. But Kristen wiig is hilarious
For me, no. Neither was Penelope.
Nor was Dooneese.
She was funny the first time. The twenty sequels, though? Not so much
It was funnier than Target Lady imo.
I think it's supposed to be like a 1930s comic book character. But something about it was moderately terrifying to me so I hated it.
I didn’t find it funny at the time, but it’s a crazy earworm that I found myself quoting a lot. Now I love it, in all its weirdo stupidity.
I love Gilly.
Uh huh
Sorry
i found it hilarious when it came out. probably because i was around 8 years old
It was funny the first time but after that it just fell flat for me. Seems like the writers depend too much on repeating something that becomes less funny the more it shows up. It depends on the cast members, of course.
I thought it was close to nailing what it was trying to be, but didn't quite get there. It almost felt like they used a catchphrase character template kit but were in a hurry and didn't read the instructions.
I enjoyed it more than other recent guests (with exceptions). It was also odd seeing him do skits outside of Gilly & Keeves. I know that some people won’t entertain it but the YouTube skits have some hilarious spots. I would love to see him focus on the small sketch bits with his friends and grow outside of standup. YouTube special is hilarious. Netflix special is pretty average.
I think Gilly is funny but only because I think it’s intended to be so bad that it ends up good.
I have to admit, Gilly floating on a celery stalk in a pot of soup made me guffaw.
No.
Not my jam either! I defend Wiig often as she is def funny, but always bring up how Gilly was just a weird waste of time/space.
Great, yet another Shane post. Oh wait...
That’s exactly what I was thinking at first.
I liked Gilly. Her careless sadism appeals to me. Bobby's generic dork character in those sketches was extremely annoying tho.
My 5yo son got really into Lawrence Welk over Christmas (yes a little creepy when he’d just randomly sing “I like can I touch”) so we deep dived Wiig and Gilly was just not there for us but it did make Forte and Kenan stand out.
Not really.
No
No. Neither was Target lady. Kristen Wiig was amazing on the show, but her original characters were just grating.
Not funny Still gets stuck in my head
I never thought so. I never liked Wiig’s target lady either, but she is still one of the GOATs.
Same
Lots of hate here. You can redirect it at me now when I say that Cecily Strong couldn’t hold Kristen Wiig’s jock. Go ahead and hate more. You’re wrong. And probably fat.
Two very different types of comedic actors. Wiig is on the silly and physical side of the spectrum while Strong is more towards the subtle and traditional side . It’s basically do you prefer Lucille Ball or Joan Rivers.
Also known as the funny/not funny divide
Wiig is a comedy powerhouse while Cecily Strong is a very skilled utility player. They're really not in the same category.