Kristen Wiig is a first ballot entrant in Saturday Night Live’s Hall of Fame, a supremely talented and charismatic comic who was one of the show’s most consistently reliable cast members during her seven-year run between 2005 and 2012, only to then become one of its most consistently reliable hosts. This weekend marked Wiig’s fifth time hosting SNL since 2013, and the resulting episode proved to be one of the season’s best — both in terms of the number of standout sketches and the bevy of celebrity cameos who turned out to give Wiig her flowers.
Check out the best moments below…
A Star-Studded Opening Monologue (feat. Lots of Five-Timers Club Jackets)
As a beloved SNL figure, it was a pretty good bet that a number of big names would turn out to celebrate Wiig and present her with the show’s illustrious Five-Timers Club jacket. That proved to be the case — albeit with a very meta and funny twist. Fellow Five-Timers member Paul Rudd was the first to welcome Wiig into the club as he interrupted her opening monologue to inquire about a script for “one of those Fiver-Timers sketches with those awesome celebrity cameos.” Longtime SNL writer Paul Pell then pointed out how the show “basically hands [jackets] out to everybody like free maxi pads,” segueing to cameos from Matt Damon, Fred Armisen, Jon Hamm, Will Forte, Martin Short, and next week’s host Ryan Gosling — all of whom were wearing Five-Timers jackets, despite having not reached the five-episode threshold. “Yea, but together we have hosted five times,” noted Forte. Eventually, Wiig did receive her jacket, courtesy of Gosling (who also took time to lint roll it). All in all, it was a worthy tribute to one of SNL’s all-time greats.
Better yet, many of these celebrities would pop up in subsequent sketches over the course of the evening.
Secretaries
A lawyer (played by Hamm) introduces his secretaries, Trudy (Heidi Garner) and Tooty (Wiig), who together “are both wrong all of the time.” (As an added bonus, count how many times Hamm nearly breaks character.)
Retirement Party
Jerry (Kenan Thompson) gets toasted at his retirement party by a variety of bizarre characters played by Wiig, Armisen, Forte, Rudd, Damon, and Bowen Yang.
NYC’s Earthquake vs. Solar Eclipse
Friday’s 4.8 magnitude earthquake (Marcello Hernández) and Monday’s Solar Eclipse (Thompson) argue over which one of them is a more disruptive event.
Jumanji
Nina (Wiig) opts out of playing a board game at a dinner party — and, for good reason: “I’m not afraid of board games, I’m afraid of being Jumanjied.”
Aunt Linda Reviews the Latest Hit Movies
Wiig reprises her character Aunt Linda to share her takes on Barbie, Oppenheimer, The Bear, and the Paw Patrol movie.
Go-Karts
Parents (Wiig and James Austin Johnson) have something terrible to tell their children, but they’re waiting until after the Go-Karts.