Brow Beat

Watch Amy Poehler Play a Petulant Teen in a Weird, Charming Unaired SNL Sketch

Saturday Night Live cast member Kyle Mooney is known for his offbeat, surrealist digital shortsand sketches, and this week’s episode—hosted by SNL alumnae Amy Poehler and Tina Fey—would have featured this typically weird Mooney sketch if it hadn’t been cut for time. In the sketch, Mooney and Poehler play teenaged siblings bickering on Christmas Day. Most of the humor is in the writing—the teens take turns muttering increasingly creative insults under their breath—but the characterizations are pretty great, too. Poehler, who has a rich history portraying hyperactive children and sulky adolescents, could play this role in her sleep, and her slouchy posture and petulant interjections (“I’m not looking at you, geek of the week”) are pitch perfect. However, it’s Kate McKinnon who steals the show as a no-nonsense matriarch whose voice quavers with anger as she guilt-trips her children about how this might be their nana’s last Christmas.