5 Reasons SNL’s Kate McKinnon Deserves an Emmy

We’ve got less than an hour to go before the 2016 Emmys begin, but I had to put in a shameless plug for my top contender in this year’s lineup: Kate McKinnon from “Saturday Night Live,” nominated for the third time for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy. Sure, she’s up against some stiff competition — Anna Chlumsky from “Veep,” Gaby Hoffman and Judith Light from “Transparent,” two-time winner Allison Janney from “Mom” and Niecy Nash from “Getting On” — but this just might be McKinnon’s year.

Here are just a few reasons why SNL’s rising star deserves that statuette, or at least the big exciting career that’s headed her way.

This alien abduction sketch from last year’s Ryan Gosling episode was about the time I thought, “You know, I should start paying closer attention to ‘Saturday Night Live’ again.” The whole thing is great, but nothing can top Kate McKinnon’s slouching, camel-toed Ms. Rafferty wryly complaining about “sitting on a stool while 40 gray aliens take turns gently batting my knockers around” while her friends were being shown what lies beyond time and space. Her deadpan delivery made everybody else in the room break character, including Ryan Gosling adorably dissolving into giggles. SNL writers Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell later told Vulture, “Kate was like an assassin, taking them out one by one. She’d get Bobby to laugh, then spread her legs wider and wider until Aidy lost it.”

If there’s one thing that makes this godawful election season worth it, it’s McKinnon’s biting-yet-kind-hearted impression of Hillary Clinton, who doesn’t know what the word “vacation” means and punches holes in the wall every time she loses a battleground state. If we’re going to have our first woman president (and dear sweet Jesus, I hope we do) we’re going to need a first-rate woman comedian to keep her on her toes — someone who’ll mock Clinton to her face for not supporting gay marriage sooner but still acknowledge her intelligence and work ethic. Fortunately for us, McKinnon’s got that covered.

From her over-the-top impression of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to her spot-on Australian drawl to her trashy Long Island accent, it seems like there’s no voice McKinnon can’t do. It adds an extra boost of hilarity to her SNL characters and leaves me looking forward to the countless bizarre roles she could take on next. She even voices “Squeeks the Mouse” on the PBS cartoon “Nature Cat,” and she can speak medium-to-fluent French — though not quite well enough to tell French jokes, as it turns out.

The all-female “Ghostbusters” reboot certainly got a mixed reception (personally I loved it and I will fight you) but one thing almost every critic could agree on was that McKinnon’s Dr. Jillian Holtzmann stole the show, simply by spending the whole movie being a smartass and gleefully blowing shit up. And then there was that glorious 30 seconds near the end, when every woman in the theater sat slack-jawed, watching a badass female character (a gay female character no less, though Sony wouldn’t let the cast and crew confirm it) suggestively lick her photon pistol and then tear into an army of ghosts in slow motion while the theme song blared in the background. In an era where women superheroes are sidelined and overly sexualized when we get them at all, this part of “Ghostbusters” was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Half the reason I want McKinnon to get the Emmy is so people will put her in more roles like this one.

Okay, I don’t actually think Emmy voters should take Kate McKinnon’s cat into consideration when they pick the winner, but I needed a fifth thing so I’m sticking with it. Crazy cat ladies have gone without quality representation in the media for far too long, and now we finally have our champion. And what better thing to grace McKinnon’s cat-hair-covered shelves than a shiny new Emmy? Let’s make this happen, people.

UPDATE: She won!!!!

Who do you want to win at the Emmys this year? Tweet us @WhatsTrending and let us know!