Vanessa Bayer leaving Saturday Night Live — her three best sketches

It was already well-known entering this weekend that Bobby Moynihan was leaving Saturday Night Live. Vanessa Bayer’s exit is a surprise.

According to a new report coming in from Deadline, tonight is going to be the final show for Bayer, who originally joined the show seven years ago. Given that her contract is expiring, the move really shouldn’t be a surprise. However, there was hope, at least on this end, that she could have signed a new deal to remain with the show for another year or two courtesy of an extension.

Bayer is one of the show’s best utility players, and often excels at doing a wide array of different things. She can ground a sketch, or be aggressively silly or flighty or anything else that the situation calls for. Overall, there are three different recurring sketches that are worth celebrating from her, given that they show off everything that she can do.

1. The Miley Cyrus Show – It’s been a while since this pretty-cool sketch was on the air, but her impersonation of the pop star is one of the things that first made her famous. It was ridiculous, but also really fun with her uttering the words “pretty cool” and having Billy Ray Cyrus around as a constant sidekick.

 

2. The “adult stars” selling products – This ongoing series with Cecily Strong was notable for the various mispronunciations of various things that were being sold, and for the host eventually turning up midway through in some ridiculous fashion.

 

3. Pizza rolls – Every year around the Super Bowl, Vanessa will try to feed her “hungry guys” in a way that always goes off the rails. On some occasions, her guys turn up to be aliens. Meanwhile, in the most recent sketch she got distracted by falling in love with Kristen Stewart. They were always funny, especially since Totino’s Pizza Rolls are something many people probably don’t even know beyond this sketch.

 

Admittedly, some of Vanessa’s long-running “Weekend Update” characters wore thin over time, in between Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy and Laura Parsons. Personally, one of the most underrated correspondents of all time is her Daisy Rose, a romantic comedy expert who gradually fell in “love” with Michael Che over the course of a few minutes.

What will you miss about Bayer on SNL the most? Share in the comments!

Meanwhile, head over here to get some additional news right now when it comes to Saturday Night Live. (Photo: NBC.)