Entertainer of the year: Kate McKinnon

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but it was this fall on saturday night live that the
comedian truly harnessed her talents before an anxiety-ridden nation. the snl
staple had long played hillary clinton on the show, but as election day came
into focus, mckinnon translated the democratic candidate with new fervor,
surpassing amy poehler’s impersonation and earning the icon status last awarded
to tina fey playing sarah palin in 2008.

week after week, dressed in a multitude of pantsuits,
mckinnon satirized the election’s political jousting, often saying what the
real clinton couldn’t.

“i’m better than ever, let’s do this,” she said in
the season opener, ducking and rolling before taking a fighter’s stance. the
sketch was a play on clinton’s bout of pneumonia, though could just as easily
have applied to mckinnon’s hand in returning the show to must-watch status.

after the second debate, she mocked trump’s attempts to
divert attention by giving front-row seats to bill clinton accusers.

“wait, i’m sorry who’s here? mistresses? bill, how
could you? how could i go on with the debate? oh no, i’ll never be able to
remember facts and figures now. oh, donald, no!” she said sarcastically.
“get real, i’m made of steel, this is nothing. hi girls!”

and mckinnon’s still at it, this past weekend morphing from
conway in the cold open prepping trump for office to clinton, in a pointed love
actually-themed sketch making her last-gasp case on a voting member of the
electoral college’s doorstep.

yet no appearance was more effective than

on nov. 12, when mckinnon delivered one heck of an electoral
finale.

sitting at a piano in a white pantsuit, the glassy-eyed
comedian sang leonard cohen’s hallelujah in snl’s cold open, a moving tribute
to those who had hoped for a first female president, and to cohen, who had died
just days before.

no jokes. no cue cards. just one woman, offering catharsis
to a divided nation.