‘SNL’ Thrills Fans With Kate McKinnon’s Debut As Greta Thunberg In Icy Cold Open
Saturday Night Live took on the holidays with a sketch about dinner conversations among a divided America, but it was Kate McKinnon’s debut as Greta Thunberg that had everybody talking. The SNL veteran portrayed the 16-year-old environmental activist at the very end of the show’s cold open, and many fans thought it was the best part of the six-minute sketch.
The holiday-themed skit started with Aidy Bryant playing the Sam the Snowman, the iconic character voiced by Burl Ives in the 1964 TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. After viewers spied on three American families and their very different political dinner conversations, McKinnon (as Thunberg) “crashed” the sketch with a chilling warning as she proclaimed that in a decade, the North Pole and Sam the Snowman will have vanished from the planet.
“In 10 years, this snowman won’t exist,” McKinnon’s Thunberg said of Bryant’s character. “Her home will be a puddle. Santa, reindeer, the North Pole, all of it, gone. The ice caps will melt and the elves will drown.”
The Swedish teen’s SNL alter ego then promised to keep it light as she addressed Donald Trump. Thunberg has been in an ongoing social media feud with the U.S. president following his cynical reaction to her being named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
“Merry maybe-our-last Christmas to all,” she continued. “And Donald Trump, step to me, and I’ll come at you like a plastic straw comes at a turtle. I can’t believe I’m saying this to a 70-year-old man, but grow up!”
It’s no surprise that in the comments section to Saturday Night Live’s Instagram post about the sketch, many fans said they want to see more of McKinnon as Greta, possibly opposite Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump, in future SNL skits.
“Give us more Greta! That was the best!” one fan wrote.
“When Greta popped in I almost died laughing,” another added.
“Greta keeping it light!” a third fan chimed in.
“Greta made it! She’s been parodied on SNL, FINALLY they’re putting Greta in a sketch?” another added.
Other fans noted that Kate McKinnon nails every impersonation she does on the NBC late-night show.
Kate McKinnon is no stranger to stealing the show in political-themed sketches on Saturday Night Live. The 35-year-old comedian has played political consultant Kellyanne Conway, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsey DeVos, and even Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani this season on the long-running late-night show. Based on the reaction to the “American Households” cold open, it would be a surprise if she doesn’t resurrect her Greta Thunberg wig for future sketches.
Thunberg has not yet responded to her Saturday Night Live “debut.”
