Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Women Wear Pants Too: Kristen Wiig

From time to time, I'll highlight a lady that gets to do more in Hollywood than just play the wife/girlfriend/romantic interest.

KRISTEN WIIG


There are a lot of people out there that think women aren't funny. I've heard it said a lot that the women on "Saturday Night Live" aren't funny.

After a quick look over the cast list, I can say that Kristen Wiig is EASILY the funniest female cast member the show has ever had. Gilda Radner is a close second. (Tina Fey, who happens to be one of the funniest women on the planet, was a writer, not a cast member.)

But that's only comparing Kristen to other women. I'll take it a step further. She's definitely the funniest and most talented member of the current cast. And I REALLY LIKE the current cast.

Before I barrage you with six million clips of her hilarious SNL characters, let's take a look at some of her other performances. While researching her, I was SHOCKED to discover that she appeared on the first season of Spike TV's "The Joe Schmo Show."

The basic idea for that show was that it was a fake reality show. Everyone was playing stereotypical reality show characters. Except for one guy (the so-called Joe Schmo), who thought it was all real.

Kristen played a quack psychologist who always tried to help people and talk about their feelings. While I don't remember specifics, I remember her being very funny. (Since I own it on DVD, I will DEFINITELY be checking it out again soon.)

As someone who's not a big fan of most reality shows, I loved the way it made fun of them. It easily had the best elimination ceremony in the history of television.

In Knocked Up, Kristen played the jealous coworker of Katherine Heigl's character. Her delivery of the "I was so surprised too" line in the beginning of the this trailer is one of the funniest things in the entire film.

What's great about her is that she can play such a diverse range of characters. And even when she's given a throw-away character, she totally owns it.

My favorite sketch featuring Kristen has her playing a woman who's VERY excited at the idea of throwing a surprise party. Never in my life did I think I would be left crying from laughter because of an SNL sketch that feature Christopher Walken as the straight man.

Okay, okay. I promise that's the last link I'll put in here.

Just kidding.

After seeing the full list of her credits, I realize that there's a lot of films I need to check out if for no other reason than to see her. I hope you'll do the same.




8 comments:

Unknown said...

I read it and I liked it! I completely agree that she was the funniest part in Knocked Up and this IS a great SNL cast! Although you might not want to trust my opinion on that because I am also really excited about Jimmy taking over for Conan!

~Julie

(p.s. Huge bummer that we have to type in a word verification every time we comment. I hate those things.)

Unknown said...

I did not know my name would appear before I type signed it. I didn't mean to sound narcissistic.

Damn. Now I have word verify again just for that stupid apology.

Jon Pyle said...

I'm still not sold on Kristen Wiig as funniest woman on SNL in her cast, much less in the history of the show. I think Amy Poehler is funnier, epecially when you consider her body of work. Did everyone forget about her?

Jonathan K said...

Julie: I have to admit I really enjoyed Jimmy Fallon when I was younger and watching "SNL." It's only in retrospect that I find him annoying. But maybe what doesn't work on the show will work as a late night host. He can laugh as much as he wants to there.

The default setting was to make everyone do word verification. I'll take it off for now.

Jon: Amy Poehler is also an extremely funny comedian, but I do feel that her best work is the same type of character. (Her character in Baby Mama was basically her character on the "Rock of Love" SNL skit but with two legs.)

Still, that doesn't mean she's not funny, just not that versatile. I wouldn't say Ferrell or Carell are versatile (though they are working on it), but they are both hilarious.

Michael Escoto said...

I've never heard of this woman.

Jonathan K said...

Escoto: You aren't the only one. But you are missing out. Check out those clips and be entertained.

Anonymous said...

Being shitty isn't funny. Kristen Wiig and all of her skits are not funny. The only thing that helps her is that most of the people who were funny on SNL are gone.

Anonymous said...

Dude, Tina Fey was in several sketches as well as Weekend Update