r/LiveFromNewYork • u/jzn110 • Apr 06 '26
Article 'A Miracle': Ashley Padilla’s ‘Kathy’ Wins Praise From an SNL Legend
https://latenighter.com/features/ashley-padilla-kathy-snl-smigel/"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.'"
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u/deanhut83 Apr 06 '26
We talkin’ TV?
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u/TheDnBDawl Apr 06 '26
😣
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u/broken_hummingbird Apr 06 '26
We talkin' TV?
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u/hereforthecommmentsz Apr 06 '26
😒
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u/Superman246o1 Apr 06 '26
We talkin' TV?
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u/spellboi_3048 when you hold the pinwheel, it has colors Apr 06 '26
😤
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u/quanfused Apr 06 '26
We talkin' TV?
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Apr 06 '26
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u/vollski Apr 06 '26
…
……
…………
You talkin’ tech?
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u/vollski Apr 06 '26
The comfort letting that silence sit there 👌
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u/BachBelt Apr 06 '26
her comedic timing on letting the silence extend just a millisecond long enough to give jack black some hope on the last couple was so good
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u/InterestingTry5190 Apr 06 '26
She did this in the Trump acknowledgement sketch as well as the mom talking to her family.
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u/Shermzilla Apr 06 '26
I noticed she also came in with the next repetition of the line exactly a second before the wave of laughter in-studio was over. So fantastic listening as well.
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u/Positive-Cod-9869 Apr 06 '26
She was reading the audience so well on her timing. She played a rhythm with their laughter.
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u/emgeejay Apr 06 '26
two decades ago she would have had an insane run on Frasier
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u/spencermoreland Apr 06 '26
Woah great call, I can see it.
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u/emgeejay Apr 06 '26
The whole cast of that show is great at finding little bits of silent acting to convincingly wait out audience laughter, probably due to their stage backgrounds and Grammer spending years "background acting" on Cheers
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u/Jazzhole5 Apr 06 '26
Agree with this 100% and with Smigel. SNL can be so hard to watch now with so many performers just going so broad & hamming it up (yeah we can all see you waving your arms for attention Sarah Sherman).
This performance speaks to what SNL was built on.
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u/justinsimoni Apr 06 '26
We talkin' TV?
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u/Fab-o-rama Apr 06 '26
[uncomfortable silence]
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u/justinsimoni Apr 06 '26
We talkin' TV?
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u/MomoMarieAuthor Apr 06 '26
Starts reading salad dressing bottle to desperately avoid eye contact
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u/Junglebook3 Apr 06 '26
Yup. Came in fully baked, she's performing like she's in her sixth season of carrying the show.
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u/Monctonian Apr 06 '26
She’s being set up as the main female lead of the show for the next 6-7 years. It’s clear Lorne sees her as his next Kate McKinnon, Maya Rudolph or Kristen Wiig
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u/jmpinstl Apr 06 '26
We talkin’ successful women?
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Apr 06 '26
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u/MizkyBizniz Apr 06 '26
Idk. Kate McKinnon felt like she was a star very early on she stuck around.
But she also overlapped with Wiigs legendary cast so I dont remember her making as immediate of an impression as Padilla did
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u/Odd-Necessary3807 Apr 06 '26
Kristen Wiig stayed on for, what... 8 years? That after her Bridesmaids made her a star.
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u/dkrtzyrrr Apr 06 '26
yeah one reason lorne made such a big to-do about her leaving was she came back after having a huge hit movie when she didn’t have to.
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u/dasuberdog11 Apr 06 '26
I think it's easier for good performers to stick around n ow. Lorne seems to give them more leeway on projects outside of SNL. In the past they were discouraged from even doing commercials, he seems more open to that stuff now.
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u/FedorDosGracies Apr 06 '26
Maya was never that big in her time.
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u/justinsimoni Apr 06 '26
agreed but every time she played Prince? chef's kiss
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u/slipknutz Apr 06 '26
*Beyonce to Fred's Prince
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u/justinsimoni Apr 06 '26
\stares intensely while hiding in a corner**
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u/ShanaAfterAll Blast Boy Apr 06 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/Mf2fPxGm3PPqg
You can't hide from the blousey one.
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u/slipknutz Apr 06 '26
"Prince says its okay you didn't remember Fred played prince, and im Beyonce. Now he wants you to hold this umbrella and stand over there"
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u/justinsimoni Apr 06 '26
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u/slipknutz Apr 06 '26
Holy crap! I did not see this before, thanks!
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u/justinsimoni Apr 06 '26
This is insane: here's Maya playing WITH Prince at the SNL 40th anniversary after party!
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u/Rockm_Sockm Apr 06 '26
Maya absolutely was as big as Kate. She was as big as Wig until Bridesmaids, which she was also in.
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u/Thymelaeaceae Apr 06 '26
I got kind of mad when Chloe Troast, Mike Longfellow, and Molly Kearney had all got taken out. I liked all of them, at times. But they are much more niche than Ashley. Chloe banked on her musical comedy, Longfellow was a weird guy (still wish they had kept him), and Molly was kind of a Melissa McCarthy type but still very much finding her way.
I at first was like why would you get rid of that white girl (Chloe T) for this one that looks similar but is kind of boring and playing moms in all the sketches. I now see Ashley isn’t a Troast replacement, but something much more like a solid sketch backbone, maybe like a Will Ferrell or Molly Shannon. I see everyone’s comparisons to Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon but so far she’s not as weird/surreal as either of them. But she is much more solid all around in just a short time than any of the featured players that got dropped.
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u/Pastafarian75 Apr 07 '26
I think of her like Phil Hartman. Glue Gal who kills it every time. She gets the same glint in her eyes when she knows she has the audience in her palm.
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u/halfwayray Apr 06 '26
As we speak, a group of high school drama students are rehearsing this sketch for their drama final
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u/44035 Apr 06 '26
When my daughter graduated high school, Kristen Wiig was the big star. And one drama student had a senior speech and did the whole thing as a Kristen Wiig character.
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u/Various_Table_3396 Apr 06 '26
Smigel hit it on the head:
“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.”
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u/LD-50_Cent Apr 06 '26
Do you want this to be real or NOT!?
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u/happilyfour Apr 07 '26
She reminds me a bit of Ana Gasteyer in that way, who certainly had characters that were wacky, but always felt like wacky real people.
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u/pat_the_catdad Apr 06 '26
We talkin’ Ashley Padilla!?
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u/thatjerkatwork Apr 06 '26
We are!
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u/pat_the_catdad Apr 06 '26
Y’know, I was a fan of Ashley Padilla before it was cool to be a fan of Ashley Padilla…
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u/kawklee Apr 06 '26
Its a fun dichotomy between this and the Chili's sketch
One is shotgunning nonsense as quickly can be as the joke, the other is basking in silence to sell the humor
Both have their places, but Ashley's use of quiet and dynamicsm of volume snd absurdity, going up and down with it, is rounding the show out nicely. Feels like something that had really been missing the past few years.
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u/LEDreddit Apr 06 '26
We talkin’ TV x 16 is so great it’s overshadowing “OMG THEY HAVE 9?!” In her numbers app 😆
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u/Azrethoc Apr 06 '26
I really hope they don't bring this character back this season. Don't Domingo her
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u/MomoMarieAuthor Apr 06 '26
Poor Domingo. They def overdid it
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u/rojo-perro Apr 06 '26
Oh you just know Domingo will be back when Colman Domingo hosts.
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u/dbbd70707 Apr 06 '26
I am hoping against hope that the reason he appeared this past week was so he doesn't have to appear this week.
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u/jrobelen Apr 06 '26
They could bring her back if they can come up with another note for her. Kids in the Hall were great at adding more dimension to these kinds of characters.
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u/Azrethoc Apr 06 '26
for sure. Like, if they did an entire sketch from her perspective, with a funny internal monologue. Or, the staff hears something horrible happened to her, so they try to be overly inclusive, only to find out nothing happened, and that it was the plot of some TV show she was watching. It just can't be her character doing the same catch phrase in a slightly different scenario.
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u/mcferglestone Apr 06 '26
Yeah, I doubt many people thought Cathy and Kathy would be back for a second sketch, let alone become two of the shows most beloved characters making multiple appearances including the final sketch of the series’ original run.
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u/Betty_Boss Apr 06 '26
speaking of Domingo. Did you see him try to sneak into the 5 timers club?
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u/AdZealousideal5383 Apr 06 '26
Ashley took classes Upright Citizens Brigade and was in the Groundlings. Lorne used to find so much talent in places like that. These are people who studied how to do sketch comedy. Not to diss on anyone in the cast in particular, but it is different watching someone learn how to do sketch comedy in real time, and watching someone who knows how to do it already.
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u/happilyfour Apr 07 '26
Yeah. She’s a true sketch performer, not a standup. I think she’s way better at letting jokes sit or living in the silence because she’s not coming from a background of being up on stage alone doing stand up and needing to fill the time.
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u/settleddown Apr 06 '26
Many times a cast member will outshine the host in a sketch. Not that many times the host will be Jack Black.
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u/Chuk Apr 06 '26
He knows when to rein it in.
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u/STXGregor Apr 07 '26
I haven’t seen the whole episode yet, but I appreciated how reined in he was on this one. Became part of the ensemble
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u/ursusveritas1 Apr 06 '26
it’s crazy she’s technically still a featured cast member. They have her out on press tours representing the cast and she’s one of the strongest players every week. It’s awesome to see.
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u/lakerdave Apr 06 '26
Her timing in this sketch was immaculate. Sometimes shorter, sometimes longer, maintaining the same pronunciation. Just so good
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u/ks_Moose Apr 06 '26
The shot (two characters in the foreground & her in between) is unusual and I think makes the premise & execution funnier somehow. Would love to get a behind the scenes view of the process to this sketch.
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u/infinitytomorrow Four Gorgeous Dogs... Apr 06 '26
I was in on the Padilla Party since last season's "Four Gorgeous Dogs". Glad everyone else is seeing it
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u/ComprehensiveBat8676 Apr 07 '26
Four gorgeous dogs is sneakily one of the best sketches / solo performances of the last few seasons
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u/bridekiller Apr 06 '26
Not to mention the raw sexual energy between her and Dusmukes.
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u/SelfishHoopla Apr 06 '26
Anybody know who wrote this sketch? Side question, what's the best way to fine out who wrote what, besides asking all you friendly knowledgeable people here?
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u/thesmallprint29 Apr 06 '26
Ashley and two of the head writers she always writes with Kent Sublette and Alison Gates.
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u/jzn110 Apr 06 '26
There was a story post on Ashley's instagram thanking the writers who worked with her on the sketch, but I forget their names offhand and the story has since expired.
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u/Key-Constant-5717 Apr 06 '26
This could've gone so, so wrong. Imagine if it had bombed, all those pauses in between "ya talking TV?" would've been excruciating
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u/Sufficient-Fact6163 Apr 06 '26
Agreed - Her timing is impeccable. Reminds me of Phil Hartman. That man had me rolling because of the same reason, his delivery was always just a Chefs Kiss.
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u/visitjacklake Apr 06 '26
Love her. Her middle-American mom, confessing to her kids, she may have been wrong about who she voted for was the funniest thing I've seen in a while.
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u/Glutenator92 Apr 06 '26
I agree she is great, I didn't like the sketch itself though
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u/tinybathroomfaucet Apr 06 '26
I thought the sketch was just okay. I’m very surprised it’s getting so much love. But to each their own. And I’m happy for Ashley Padilla.
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u/Jimmychanga317 Apr 06 '26
Same, this sketch was just terrible. Repeating the same joke over and over again is never going to carry a sketch, and this might be the worst offender I've seen. The fact that it JUST. KEPT. GOING and there was literally just silence in between each "We talkin TV" was honestly preposterous (the other performers' reactions were not enough to break up the silence either). Ashley is great, but when there is literally nothing to work with even the best sketch performer can't make it good.
This is the kind of sketch that I would have found funny back when I was like 12 and didn't understand any joke that actually has intelligence behind it. I realize that this last sentence was super pretentious but honestly it's the best way I can describe my feelings about this sketch. It's the same way I felt about the Snackhomiez sketches and I'm honestly baffled that these terrible sketches are getting so much praise. Just awful and quite frankly, lazy and an affront to the viewer's intelligence.
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u/mutantbabysnort Apr 06 '26
Alright Chloe Troast gang: your move.
J k, I liked Chloe, but it’s hard to deny Ashley is 🔥
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u/OneDadvosPlz Apr 06 '26
She reminds me of Will Ferrell in that the force of her personality just takes over the skit. Ferrell can will humor into existence just with determination, and Padilla does that too.
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u/Justifiably_Bad_Take Apr 06 '26
It takes some restraint to get a host like Jack Black and do a sketch where he is mostly silent.
Her timing, mixed with his expressions everytime she spoke, made for a great sketch
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u/space_llama_karma Apr 06 '26
Padilla is a star. The last cast member to crush her role that quickly was probably Kate McKinnon
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u/FishermanExpensive Apr 06 '26
she's verrrrrrry good. It's refreshing when SNL casts actors who are funny instead of comedians/content creators who couldn't act their way out of a paper bag.
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u/popculturella Apr 06 '26
She was giving some serious McKinnon vibes and I mean that as a compliment.
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u/rapturaeglantine Apr 06 '26
I fell in love with her after the first gorgeous dog passed the ball around
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u/cook1223 Apr 06 '26
Thought is was meh and just a way to kill time in the show to be honest. Dragged it to death and then beat it some more
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u/Pastafarian75 Apr 07 '26
I remember watching a documentary where George Clinton was talking about the difference between most funk and Parliament. He spoke about funk music playing on the back end of the beat and that Parliament found space behind that.
That's how Ashley's timing is. Just that microsecond extra.
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u/Nanaman Apr 06 '26
There’s no question in my mind that we just saw the birth of a reoccurring character
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u/Adventurous_Yam8784 Apr 06 '26
She is the best cast member by far. I think I’ve loved every sketch she has been in
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u/capehaha Apr 06 '26
I feel like this sketch would have bombed really hard had it been aired last season. I think whether this kind of awkwardness can ascend to awkward humor depends on how comfortable we are with the comedian. Ashley's charisma and talent totally carried the sketch, but if I had watched this not knowing her or her style I think I would have had a really hard time.
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u/monsieurxander Apr 06 '26
but if I had watched this not knowing her or her style I think I would have had a really hard time.
We call this the Luke Null
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u/The_Liberator21 Apr 06 '26
Oh, that's a really good point. It's like when you have a social group where you KNOW the hangout is going to be fun no matter what, you're more willing to go out and try something new. Whereas when you're less confident in the group dynamics, you stick to something basic and pray people have fun.
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u/clkou Apr 06 '26
Could have had her and Chloe Troast. Has there been a bigger blunder than letting her go?
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u/DixieKrissie Apr 06 '26
Chloe Troast is the epitome of being “fine.” She’s not missed as much as you think.
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u/windmillninja I'M SORRY THAT YOUR GODDAMN DOG DIED Apr 06 '26
Eh, as talented as Troast may be, from what I've gathered she was a bit of a toxic presence behind the scenes.
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u/xxx_sniper Apr 06 '26
I am tired of her of being in every sketch. Similarly in the opening they threw her in there as Pam Bondi, but it ruined the flow.
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u/AintKnowShitAboutFuk Apr 06 '26
I havent watched the whole show yet but so far this is easily my top one of the night.
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u/HotOne9364 Apr 06 '26
I just wanna apologize again for thinking she was gonna be leaving a year ago.
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u/throwaway17197 Apr 06 '26
Having someone this good finally i dont feel crazy telling people we have been settling for scraps praising the current cast before Ashley
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u/Zelostar Apr 07 '26
Lorne Michaels will watch Ashley with her improv and sketch background command the stage like a veteran and then choose to add 3 more standups to the cast who have never acted before next season.
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u/Bleezy79 Apr 06 '26
Ashley has been the super star the last few episodes. I’ve really been enjoying her characters.
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u/atleastitsnotgoofy Apr 06 '26
I noticed this in her fart sketch and then the haircut. She really allows those drawn-out silences like most people before her have not. And I get it. Live TV is probably uncomfortable in the best of circumstances. But she has no fear.