If Ashley Padilla wasn’t already having a breakout season at Saturday Night Live, she cemented it Saturday night with a stop-what-you’re-doing-and-watch sketch that opened the post-monologue portion of the show.
Don’t take my word for it. Praise for Padilla’s commitment to character and patience and timing was all over social media, including in the reactions of one distinguished possessor of career-defining SNL expertise.
Robert Smigel, the celebrated former SNL writer (creator of Da Bears and The Ambiguously Gay Duo, among many others) was so struck by Padilla’s portrayal of an implacably obnoxious office worker he banged out a message on X: “Ashley Padilla is a miracle. You can’t look away.”
In a phone chat he amplified:
“The older you get, the harder it is to be surprised and sit up at attention because you don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Smigel said, explaining what he meant by sitting up and taking notice: “Watching someone who’s completely ahead of the audience, doing things we just haven’t seen. She is one of those performers that remind you it’s worth watching every week.”
The sketch’s premise was perfectly straightforward. The other office workers want to enjoy their lunch without “Kathy,” because she brings up things too boring to endure or far too personal—like how she has to crush up her birth control pills into her nacho lunch. Not because of sex, but for a myriad of other ailments.
The other four characters have clearly all been through discussions with Kathy that are similarly torturous. They want to talk in peace, so they try to ignore her. But Kathy will not be ignored.
They try to talk about a new Windows update that’s eating up their day. She interrupts: “We talking tech?” until the table’s ringleader, played by host Jack Black, can’t take it anymore and shouts at her to shut up.
No effect on Kathy. When the talk later shifts to the latest episode of Survivor, Kathy from the back table wants in: “We talking TV?” In the face of her relentless repetition, the group resolves not to respond, at one point even holding hands in solidarity.
Kathy asks again, “We talking TV?” And she asks again. At intervals long and short, she asks again—a full 15 times.
Kathy never goes over the top; never even raises her voice. Padilla’s look never wavers, even as her colleagues contort their faces in frustration.
“What I love about her sketch work is that she’s not a broad performer at all,” Smigel said of Padilla. “She doesn’t make funny faces. Her characters are grounded. They’re recognizable people. She just adds seven percent to reality, and it makes all the difference.”
This character, like many Padilla has created this season, is “beautifully absurd,” Smigel said. “She’s able to dig into the unconscious of her characters and bring out thoughts and behaviors that surprise you but ultimately make perfect sense.”
Another recent sketch from Padilla, her “mother trying to explain to her adult kids why she’s changed her mind about Trump,” also won raves and is widely considered to be among the best in Season 51.
Smigel agreed, pointing to one aspect of the sketch that elevated it for him. “She made her kids rehearse their reactions.”
The Mom is so worried about the kids harassing her for finally coming around about how awful Trump is that she insists on seeing them react to fictional scenarios she tries out—like she’s suddenly started eating bugs.
“It was beautifully human,” Smigel said, praising both Padilla and the sketch’s other writers. “It’s not just writing on the surface. She’s taking it further: examining how much anxiety this mother has at the thought of confessing to her kids.”
Smigel, who beyond his SNL work is also the father of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, added, “I’ve gotten mostly known for doing bigger, louder things. But deep down, my favorite stuff is the quiet stuff.”
He likened Padilla’s work to that of superstar SNL alum Kristen Wiig, who created a similar gallery of realistically put-upon women. “Ashley is at that level of originality.”
That is not to say that Robert Smigel does not also enjoy big, broad, over-the-top comic creations. He spoke up for another breakout female performer on SNL.
“Sarah Sherman is herself incredibly original.”
Sherman also made waves this week with her latest wildly costumed character to visit “Weekend Update”: Kristi Noem’s husband. (No other name given.)
Sherman’s impersonation involved the preposterously large-breasted, alleged cross-dressing Noem spouse pressing everyone nearby on whether they wanted to make sneering comments about his behavior.
“What was brilliant about it was it appears like it might be cheap, but it wasn’t cheap. What Sarah did was figure out a way to make it about kink-shaming—and the particular difficulty of not trying to kink-shame something that is incredibly ripe for laughter.”
That was accomplished by pushing Michael Che, Colin Jost, cue-card guy Wally Feresten, the dead dog Kristi Noem shot, even Lorne Michaels’ suddenly empty and spinning under-the-bleachers chair to say something about her balloon-aided chest.
Smigel’s point: you can be broad, you can be subtle, but if you make the live audience in Studio 8H laugh out loud you are part of a long, ongoing tradition.
Referencing the legendary head SNL writer, Smigel said, “Jim Downey used to say, ‘Writers love sketches where normal people are in a crazy situation. And performers love crazy people in a normal situation.’ ”
The best episodes of SNL have both.
“I still watch the show because there are still moments like that,” Smigel said. “If you like sketch comedy, you gotta keep watching.”
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Season 51 is smoking. The cast work so well with the guests. Marcello as Sebastian Maniscalco is gold.