Watch Ariana DeBose and Kate McKinnon Feel Witty and Pretty and GAY Together on “SNL”

After a good long year, at least, of living inside that Verizon commercial, Kate McKinnon returned to Saturday Night Live. She made her first appearance last night during Ariana DeBose’s monologue, where she chatted about winning a Golden Globe, then broke into song from West Side Story — and, boom! Kate McKinnon was freed from her 5G prison. Autostraddle Editor in Chief, Carmen Phillips, SNL super fan and comedy nerd, was talking about the moment even quicker than Twitter. “My complicated West Side Story feelings aside — did I nerd out seeing these two queer women pull up stools and sing Broadway? You already know I did.” It’s true, I already knew she did! The episode as a whole wasn’t quite as awesome as this moment, but when is SNL ever a total package anymore? Enjoy, queer Broadway nerds! (So: all my favorite people!)

There’s also a pretty hilarious Sappho skit with an unfortunate defense-of-Ellen joke, but it’s still funny.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1719 articles for us.

10 Comments

  1. The New West Side story-mixed feelings-(mostly because of that creep playing tony.) But Ariana carried like a big part of the movie. Her performance? brilliant. Her vibe? Amazing. This little performance? Gold.

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