While S.N.L.’s 50^th Anniversary Special marked a homecoming for show friends and alumni, it was also notably Meryl Streep’s first-ever appearance. Hailed as “a remarkable first,” and a debut “after decades of fan requests,” Streep was featured in the “Close Encounter” sketch as Colleen Rafferty Sr.— mother of the vulgar-mouthed serial alien abductee Colleen Rafferty, played by Kate McKinnon since 2015.[1] As in its previous iterations, the sketch featured two Pentagon officials (Aidy Bryant and Jon Hamm) questioning a group of friends (McKinnon as Rafferty Jr., Pedro Pascal, and Woody Harrelson) about their alien encounters. In an affected southern accent, Colleen Rafferty reports abject treatment, using crass, rhyming euphemisms and physical comedy. 

Mid-sketch, the officials invite Rafferty’s mother in for questioning. Repeated shots of the star-studded studio audience throughout the evening have hinted at possibilities—it could be any number of SNL alumnae or recurring guests in attendance. This was a moment ripe for articulating a multi-generational comedic legacy.[2]Instead, Streep strode onstage announcing “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here,” blaming her tardiness on bathroom troubles. Neither McKinnon’s contemporary, nor a direct comedic forbearer, Streep’s layered performance amalgamated her own star persona and her prior roles, filtered through the voice of Rafferty, Sr.—itself modeled after McKinnon’s character. She delivered explicit, self-referential lines such as “This devil wears nada,” and describes her personal grooming as “an ‘Into the Woods’ sort of a situation,” all while mirroring the spread-legged, slouched posture of McKinnon’s Rafferty Jr. 

While the walk-on cameo is an established convention, Streep’s first appearance 50 years into the show’s run was a distinct surprise. Press surrounding the show underscored the incongruity between Streep’s persona as a serious and refined actor and the raunchy Rafferty. On the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast Amy Poehler described being star-struck at sharing a dressing room with Streep and praised her disciplined rehearsing.”[3] The appearance of a star of Streep’s caliber thus reinforced S.N.L.’s own status as cultural canon. Streep’s proclamation, “I’m [finally] here,” and her commitment to fully inhabiting Rafferty Sr. is a kind of lateral legacy-making made possible because she had been offscreen, that is, ob-scene, all this time.