Kate McKinnon’s Best Saturday Night Live Sketches During Her Return as Host

Kate McKinnon returned to Saturday Night Live on December 16 to host the episode, a year after she left her decade long role as a cast member. The hilarious comedian had a lot of great moments in the show this weekend, but it all started with a monologue and some surprise guests.

“My name’s Kate,” McKinnon started in the opening. “I used to work here, and now I’m back at my old job. This is so weird to be doing ‘the monologue.’ I don’t really like to talk in my own voice—that’s kind of why I got into this racket in the first place. Basically, I’ve never been myself in a monologue before…I usually play the role of Freak Next to Hot Person.”

This was the show’s Christmas episode so McKinnon was of course set to sing a song. She began performing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” before fellow old cast members Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph popped in to harmonize. Wiig stated they were “just walking by,” but they both returned for later sketches in the episode.

Last night’s cold open featured Heidi Gardner and Bowen Yang as E! hosts giving out awards like “Most Disappointing Gift Given to a 10-Year-Old Boy” and “Dad pretending to love his son’s gift.”

Later, McKinnon got to be the weirdo she loves being, playing a Scottish elf who is the only witness in a report covering a killer whale attack at the North Pole.

In a sketch about ABBA, Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig, McKinnon, and Yang played the 1970s Swedish pop group as they sang Christmas versions of their biggest hits.

Then McKinnon got to stand out as her own character, playing a familiar person to all viewers, the gift-giver who criticizes their own gift.

In a pre-taped sketch, McKinnon, Rudolph, and Wiig sing about their crunchy lifestyle on a tampon farm.

In this sketch, one of the more controversial holiday traditions, the office yankee swap, is the butt of the joke.

The host was also joined by musical guest Billie Eilish in a new Whiskers R We sketch.

McKinnon may have been gone, but she’s definitely not out-of-practice.

Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.