Goober the Clown — Cecily Strong in serious Big Comfy Couch clown gear — recently made headlines after a strange but powerful "Weekend Update" segment on Saturday Night Live. In the sketch, Goober commented on the Texas abortion law by discussing her own abortion in her 20s...while twisting worm-shaped balloons and squirting water.
If you've been tuning into SNL over the past few years, you'll know that Cecily is a freaking legend. Joining the show in 2012, she’s one of SNL's finest, a gem of a character actor who’s always putting her entire foot into each sketch.
She’s a professional on live television, known to be one of the cast members who almost never ever breaks character. Whether she’s doing an accent or singing a song for a skit, she embodies her characters fully.
To pay homage to Cecily’s truly excellent work throughout the years, let’s revisit her best sketches so far!
1. "Weekend Update: Claire from HR"
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As Claire from HR, Cecily quizzes Colin to make sure he understands what constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace. What's the appropriate way to handle workplace relationship? Well, it’s not to lock someone in a room or bully them out of the industry.
2. "Weekend Update: Goober the Clown on Abortion"
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Of course, there’s Cecily’s bit as Goober the Clown. Her ability to balance the emotional beats with the weird humor commands nothing but respect here.
3. "Weekend Update: Jeanine Pirro on the Mexico–United States Border"
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Cecily is renowned for her unhinged Jeanine Pirro impression — here, she generously sloshes wine at Colin and ends the segment with an amazing rendition of “My Way.” It’s so good that she had fans believing that this was her exit episode…
4. "Weekend Update: Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With on Christmas"
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You know what’s the opposite of a travesty? “Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With” is one of Cecily’s BEST characters, and she blessed us with it during her first season on SNL.
5. "Weekend Update: Cathy Anne on Pizzagate"
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Cathy Anne, the woman who’s always yelling outside of Michael Che’s window, has some thoughts about alt-right conspiracists.
6. "Christmas Sing Along"
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"Silent Night" is for normies…have you heard of “Deborah's Time” from Broadway? Cecily and Chris Hemsworth really want to play it at their Christmas party.
7. "Italian Restaurant"
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Here, Cecily and Ryan Gosling simply CANNOT believe that they were eating plebeian Pizza Hut fare instead of fine dining at a fake high-end restaurant called Terrazanos.
8. "Manolo Blahnik"
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Cecily crushes the deadpan here, playing a former porn star who recalls her sexual experiences while promoting Manolo Blahnik.
9. "Close Encounter"
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Kate McKinnon infamously kills this sketch about a UFO encounter, but we’ve got to give credit to Cecily, too. The way she (mostly) earnestly delivered the line: “I was carried down gently in a cradle of light, placed into a soft bed of wallflowers” had her fellow actors in stitches.
10. "Hero Dog Press Conference"
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If this sketch, along with “Court Show,” teaches us anything, it’s that dogs are Cecily's Achilles’ heel — she’s trying SO HARD not to break character. Here, specifically, she plays a dog translator for Conan, the K-9 officer who aided in a terrorist raid.
11. "Love at First Sight"
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Cecily has fallen so hard for Chance the Rapper’s character at a restaurant that they’re literally flying together, much to her friends’ chagrin.
12. "Aladdin"
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Before Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson took a stab at Aladdin, Cecily and Adam Driver crush it here. Not to mention, Cecily sounds AMAZING as Jasmine.
13. "Gemma Sleigh Ride"
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Her British accent as Gemma is spot on — somebody cast her on Love Island.
14. "QVC Audition"
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Cecily’s work as Joyce Childers really makes you wonder if she should play a Southern lady in a thriller.
15. "First Lady"
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Cecily’s Melania impression is top tier — she’s also joined by other great impressions here: Natalie Portman’s Jackie Kennedy, Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton, Aidy Bryant’s Martha Washington, and Leslie Jones’ Michelle Obama.
16. "Girlfriends Game Night"
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Bill Hader is another source of kryptonite for Cecily — here, they play a lovely new couple trying to conceive…even if it means getting freaky on game night with their friends. But to be fair, he *is* wheeling her around into everything while they’re supposedly getting busy under a courtesy blanket.
17. "Singing Sisters"
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Let’s talk about how AMAZING the harmonies are between Cecily, Kate, and Amy, who play *checks notes* a trio of singing raccoon sisters. Also, Cecily saying, “I get to yum yum garbage,” is actually everything.
18. "Aer Lingus"
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That Irish accent, though!
19. "CNN Newsroom"
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“Welcome back. I’m Brooke Baldwin, and you’re watching the loose collection of daytime nonsense we call the CNN newsroom.”