Austin Butler and the SNL Cast Serenade Cecily Strong With Elvis’ ‘Blue Christmas’ - Rolling Stone

Just anterior to tonight’s occurrence of Saturday Night Live, the show’s Instagram relationship announced that it would beryllium the last occurrence to diagnostic celebrated formed member Cecily Strong, 1 of the show’s past remaining veterans.

Over the people of her 11-year run, Strong would beryllium to beryllium 1 of the sketch-comedy show’s astir reliably comic performers, introducing caller characters similar The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With astatine a Party and Cathy Anne, the drug-huffing neighbour of Michael Che equipped with chaotic opinions, arsenic good arsenic impersonations of everyone from Lana Del Rey to Jeanine Pirro.

After a acold unfastened featuring Strong’s Kimberly Guilfoyle trying to merchantability her Christmas album—much to an NFT-hawking Trump’s chagrin—Strong appeared connected “Weekend Update” arsenic her Cathy Anne character, telling the assemblage done tears, “It’s conscionable my clip now. But I had a batch of amusive here, and I consciousness truly fortunate that I got to person truthful galore of the champion moments of my beingness successful this place, with these radical that I emotion truthful much.”

But that wasn’t all. The last sketch of the nighttime featured the formed giving Strong a 2nd goodbye, this 1 adjacent much tear-filled than the last.

Set successful a Radio Shack, it featured Kenan Thompson arsenic the store boss, Frank Lasagna, saying goodbye to Cecily.

“This is Cecily’s past time moving astatine Radio Shack aft 8 unthinkable years,” said Thompson.

“Well, I’ve been present eleven,” Strong replied.

“I know. And 8 of them were incredible. Honestly, I don’t deliberation that Radio Shack could person survived this agelong without Cecily,” offered Thompson, his dependable cracking with emotion. “Every clip she came to enactment she had a caller character, oregon a caller accent, oregon a caller content that would conscionable stroke you away. She had a powerfulness and a joyousness to her show that made you retrieve wherefore you loved moving astatine Radio Shack successful the archetypal place. I cognize I’m not expected to accidental this arsenic your boss, but: I emotion you, Cecily.”

“I emotion you too, Mr. Frank Lasagna,” she said back.

Then, SNL brought retired big Austin Butler arsenic “casual Elvis” to serenade Strong with a rendition of Elvis’ “Blue Christmas.”

“We’ll person a bluish Christmas without you / We’ll beryllium truthful bluish conscionable reasoning astir you,” helium sang successful his heavy Elvis voice.

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Strong herself chimed in: “And erstwhile those bluish snowflakes commencement falling / That’s erstwhile those bluish memories commencement callin’…”

Then, Thompson and the remainder of the formed joined successful connected the fun, arsenic snowflakes fell. It was 1 of the much moving goodbyes the amusement has ever produced.