Kate McKinnon felt “ashamed” for breaking during Saturday Night Live sketches
The now-former SNL star knows you're not supposed to laugh during a live TV sketch, but sometimes you're just having too much fun
Aux News Kate McKinnon
In the history of Saturday Night Live, Kate McKinnon probably isn’t the most guilty of excessively “breaking” during sketches—that would be a certain talkshow host who we’ll call Jimmy Breakin’… or Breaky Fallon. Still, in a recent interview with Vulture, McKinnon has revealed that she “felt ashamed” when she would break during sketches, saying there’s “something unprofessional” about laughing or briefly dropping your character.
The most famous examples of McKinnon breaking, as cited by the Vulture piece, are from the recurring sketch where she plays a woman who had recently been abducted by aliens (with Cecily Strong and Ryan Gosling playing other abductees in a few of them). The format of the sketch involved basically everyone in the room playing a straight man to McKinnon as she describes her increasingly bizarre and horrific experience, with her telling Vulture that it was as much a showcase for her as it was for original writers Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell.
She blames her regular breaking in the “Close Encounter” sketches to them, saying she would just be “so excited” to hear the strange and graphic “turns of phrase” that they had written, and then everyone would laugh the way she hoped they would. “Sometimes it was just too fun,” she says, and while she did know they’re “not supposed to break,” she thought it could also be a “hint” to audiences that she was having as much fun as it seemed like she was.
McKinnon doesn’t specifically blame him, but Ryan Gosling also had a tedency to break when he was in those sketches, which probably doesn’t help. Also, McKinnon does shout out Aidy Bryant, who recurred as one of the government agents interviewing the abductees, and it’s worth noting that she’s off-camera for most of the wackiest stuff in those sketches. She was presumably having some kind of reaction to McKinnon’s escalating story. Basically, what we’re saying is that—since McKinnon wasn’t constantly breaking or mugging for the camera like a certain someone—she certainly shouldn’t have been ashamed of it.
The entire Vulture piece isn’t about the “Close Encounter” sketches and does have some other interesting details, like McKinnon talking about when she told Lorne Michaels when she was leaving and a reference to the time she played piano as Hillary Clinton after the 2016 election (possibly the weirdest moment in her tenure, though she doesn’t see it that way).
47 Comments
That sketch is a great example of breaking (or corpsing) elevating the material. Times like that, you can feel the energy in the room, and it truly feels like everyone is having such fun they can’t help but giggle like children. Other times it’s Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz snickering like two kids making eye contact in church; everyone else doesn’t get what’s so fuckin funny.
It was the first time. Then the more they did it the more sad it became that they were chasing that original high. Like most recurring SNL sketches.
Did she cross paths with Fallon?Could this whole thing be her shading him?
One of my favourites of that was the Daniel Craig game night (quoting) sketch.
Yeah, I think corpsing works when it’s the guest star, cause the atmosphere is to new to them, so when you get them to break and everyone follows, that’s funWhen a cast member is openly mugging, it’s less so
She should feel shame for helping elect Donald Trump and dating neo Nazi Bari Weiss.
Ah yes, famed Jewish author of “How to Fight Anti-Semitism” and neo Nazi Bari Weiss.There’s no quicker route to invalidation than invoking Godwin’s Law.
Bari Weiss’s long history of hate speech against the people of Palestine is long and well documented. She’s a modern day Goebbels for her defense of the genocide Israel does on a daily basis.
I’m not here to mount a defense of Bari Weiss. As a Jew myself I just found your comment inaccurate and pretty gross.
What Israel is doing to Palestine would make the Nazis proud. Bari Weiss lies and defends that genocide which tells you a lot about anyone who would date her.
I’m not here to mount a defense of Israel either.I’m not going to wade into this extremely complicated issue any further than to say the following:Your misuse of the terms “neo Nazi” and “genocide” are hyperbolic and offensive. I get that you’re appalled; I’m appalled. But more apt would probably be something along the lines of “Zionist zealot” and “atrocities”. There’s a reason Mark Ruffalo walked back those comments he made about genocide. What was it he said?“It’s not accurate, it’s inflammatory, disrespectful and being used to justify antisemitism here and abroad. Now is the time to avoid hyperbole.” This is all correct, and yet it doesn’t excuse one bit of what Israel has done.I really shouldn’t have to explain to you why you shouldn’t refer to Jews as Nazis.
I don’t give a fuck what Mark Ruffalo said because I’m not an idiot like you who listens to celebrities. Anyone who defends a genocide like you and Bari Weiss is the same as a Nazi. Scumbag genocide deniers like you and Bari hate being called Nazis because that is exactly what you are. You pretend it is anti-semitism because you want to keep slaughtering innocent Palestinian children without being called out for it. Fuck you.
Still gross. I bet you’re fun at parties.That’s an impressive lack of reading comprehension and critical thinking, but I’d expect nothing less from someone who doesn’t know the definitions of “Nazi” and “genocide”. I actually made it pretty clear I don’t support Israel’s actions (don’t know how I could have made that clearer) but you went ahead anyway and accused me of wanting to murder children like a petulant baby throwing an Internet temper tantrum. I didn’t accuse you of supporting Hamas, because I don’t have enough information and “I’m not an idiot like you”.An aside: I can’t even with your Mark Ruffalo malarkey – you’ve never agreed with a celebrity in your life? Or do you think I formed this opinion because of the dude who played Bruce Banner’s tweet history? GTFO.Whether you’re conscious of it or not, it is antisemitism to be flagrantly out here referring to Jews as Nazis; I don’t have to pretend. Especially when the topic in question is such a complicated one and you have such a myopic take. All in all that was a pretty weak attempt to deflect from your own ignorance; all you really did was double down on it. But I can see there’s no reasoning with you, so good luck in the future.
You defend genocide and whine about anti semitism. You’ve never been to a party in your life.
You don’t know what that fucking word means.Whatever you want to call what Israel’s doing, I’ve not defended it once. Meanwhile you’re out here calling me a Nazi like the racist prick that you are.I wouldn’t whine about antisemitism if you weren’t such an antisemite.
Whine more you pathetic narcissist.
Oh, I’m done with you. You’re nothing but a fucking troll who can’t debate worth shit. You just plug your ears and go “fuck you fuck you I can’t hear you”. The only thing that there was really left to do was demonstrate this and I think that’s been accomplished. I’m signing off, you’re a dick.
I don’t debate with Nazis like you who defend genocide. Fuck off.
You truly are an idiot.
Yeah, calling Jews Nazis is like picking your nose in public.
If Bari Weiss truly gave a shit about fighting anti-semitism, she wouldn’t spend so much time whining about woke culture while elevating the “Intellectual Dark Web”. She’s a fucking idiot and a con artist. When she was in college, she led her own cancel culture movement.
Gosling is doing so much worse than McKinnon in that sketch. He’s practically crying with laughter while he’s facing away from the camera. He does do a pretty decent job holding it together after he turns back around, but I can definitely see how it would be hard for everyone else to keep cool with that kind of energy
I can give a guest a bit more leeway in that situation. The cast, not so much. I’m pretty sure Bryant never broke, which pretty much always made whatever she was doing that much funnier.
I’ve seen Aidy Bryant break in sketches for sure, but she’s typically better at soldiering on and recovering than anyone else in the cast.
“I’m pretty sure Bryant never broke…”I’m pretty sure she did.
She has for sure. Here’s a throwaway sketch that broke everyone in it on the premise alone
That was great. I needed a laugh.
I want to be clear that I’m not blaming Gosling at all for his reactions, as he’s still keeping himself way more composed than I would if Kate McKinnon was feeling me up.
The guest hosts who are the most method seem to break the most. I don’t know why that is.
method is hard when you play 15 characters in an an hour and a half
I think they’re so laser-focused in on it that when they get something supremely silly like Close Encounters, it’s too much
Good.
I always thought the point of those sketches was for her to break the others, I never caught her corpsing as much.
I like a little breaking. It’s nice to know that the performers are really enjoying themselves.
I had no trouble watching them without laughing.
I know it’s easy to poke fun at SNL for not being consistently funny, but it’s just the nature of the show’s format. Everything is essentially written in two days, and being as mainstream as it is doesn’t really allow them to push the envelope too much.
So what’s the fucking point?
It’s on network TV, and it does big numbers. The point is to sell advertising.
It’s hugely successful?
I agree. SNL has a terrible format.
There’s a big difference between a pro like her breaking character and Fallon doing it. To me, one of the funniest things to ever air on SNL was when Phil Hartman, the biggest pro of them all, broke character during a Tarzan, Tonto, and Frankenstein sketch. They were on a talk show and after a couple of softball questions (i.e. “What’s your opinion of bread?”) the host kept pressing Frankenstein for his take on the INF Treaty. Eventually, Hartman completely lost his shit laughing while responding “Fire BAD!”, got up and destroyed the set.
I wish I could find video of this but it’s somehow not online.
I don’t like Family Guy much, but this was funny.
The Close Encounters sketches as your example for Kate breaking? (when those are really the other actors who are losing it)Did you forget about Tenement Museum? Whiskers R Us?
Breaking is historically not popular amongst cast members themselves (always better to follow the lead of the guest), because it feels like spotlight-stealing. Tracy Morgan said in a Penthouse interview (during its tame Maxim-chasing days) that Jimmy knew better than to break in one of Tracy’s sketches because Jimmy knew Tracy would light him up for it afterward.
Breaking all the time is unprofessional, unless it becomes a feature instead of a bug. It’s a game. Waiting for Jimmy Fallon or Bill Hader to break is fun and adds interest to the show, in my opinion. If everyone is breaking all the time, though, it’s like a video podcast of a middle school sleep over – no one needs to be watching that (I’m assuming most people got into laughing fits at sleep overs and maybe had a friend that wet their pants, had milk squirt out of their nose, or got yelled at to get to sleep at 2am because most adults still have to go to work during the summer).Occasional breaks are to be expected. The rare ones can be even more fun.
Bill Hader said he felt super bad about breaking every time he played Stefon, but Lorne re-assured him that it was okay because what he was saying/doing was funny. He even said, “I’d have a hard time keeping a straight face reading those jokes.”
Fallon would just break over an ordinary line, not an actual funny joke.
. . . while she did know they’re “not supposed to break,” she thought it could
also be a “hint” to audiences that she was having as much fun as it
seemed like she was.Exactly. I want to know that comedic actors aren’t doing their job just to get a buck. Laughing just adds to the humor.But I will say a straight instigator is very helpful, to make sure the little asshole’s thru.