Too much? Kate McKinnon reprised her role as Kellyanne Conway on the Saturday, February 11, episode of Saturday Night Live in a Fatal Attraction–inspired skit that drew mixed reactions from viewers.
The sketch kicked off with CNN’s Jake Tapper (Beck Bennett) heading home after a full day in the studio, with the news anchor telling a crew member of Conway, “The White House offered her, but she just has too many credibility issues.”
Once he arrived at his apartment, however, he had a surprise waiting for him in the dark: McKinnon-as-Conway sitting cross-legged at the kitchen counter in nothing but a nightie. “I just want to be part of the news, Jake,” she told a startled Bennett-as-Tapper.
“This is how you do it, you break into my apartment?” he demanded, to which she replied, “What was I supposed to do? You weren’t answering my calls, you changed your number. … I’m not going to be ignored, Jake.”
As the skit continued, McKinnon’s Conway got increasingly erratic, sniffing at faux Tapper’s tie because “it smells like the news” and imagining “that hot, black mic pressed up against [her] skin.”
“What if I do a commercial for Ivanka’s shoes live on air? It’s just a little ethics violation,” she said, pleading with Tapper. Things took a turn for the worse when her simpering act turned into anger and she even at one point grabbed a knife à la Glenn Close in the 1987 hit Fatal Attraction, threatening to kill Bennett-as-Tapper.
And the ending itself was enough to make even the most loyal SNL fans squirm in their seats. The Internet reacted with mixed reviews after the Conway sketch, though it likely won’t be the last.
SNL just gave a gift to the White House with this sexist, unfunny Kellyanne Conway skit.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) February 12, 2017
as much as i loathe kellyanne, this highly sexualized SNL version of her gives me the icks
— marisa kabas (@MarisaKabas) February 12, 2017
Sorry but this is not sexist. It’s actually brilliant. For many reasons. https://t.co/bCM9DG2EC8
— Sasha Stone (@AwardsDaily) February 12, 2017
https://twitter.com/SheWhoVotes/status/830757586852990976
Jake Tapper tells Kellyanne Conway, "Not tonight, Beavis." in new Fatal Attraction#SNLSpicer #KateMcKinnon pic.twitter.com/Q7eBQJil7A
— Fiona Adorno (@FionaAdorno) February 12, 2017
Halfway thru #SNL and Kate McKinnon has played Jeff Sessions, Kellyanne Conway AND Elizabeth Warren. All perfectly. Amazing.#KateMcKinnon
— Beau Harris (@BeauHarrisStuff) February 12, 2017
The real-life Tapper even weighed in with his own response to the over-the-top sketch.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 12, 2017
I think they may have been going more for a comment on my enormous forehead — it's an 8head really
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 12, 2017
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in January, the real Conway told the publication that she just wished the show would “make [its Conway] a little bit more happy. I’m known as much more happy than maybe the character sometimes is.”
