She is not the average nerd. She is the really creepy kid that puts dead animals in peoples' mailboxes. The kid that everyone knows is crazy, but everyone tries to ignore the craziness until she can move on to the next grade. Sure the sketch is a little thin, but I still laugh when I see Gilly's expression. It's just silliness.

there's actually a fair amount to like on today's SNL. the Weekend Update segment misses Amy Poehler's presence, but they still do topical late night humor as good or better than any of the daily network talk shows. the digital shorts don't have a perfect track record, but far more good than bad with the occasional excellent.

That said, i agree with everything in this article except the line "Kristen Wiig, you are so talented." This character is one dimensional and humorless, which puts it in the company of *EVERY* Kristen Wiig character, which all seem to be based on a wacky expression or accent and some verbal tic. I do not understand her appeal at all. The worst part about her overwhelming presence on the show is that for every too-long, insufferable, witless sketch in which she appears, that means one less appearance by the genuinely enjoyable absurdity of Will Forte, or a fleshed out character from Bill Hader (who for my money is the most capable impressionist/character actor since Phil Hartman in the cast). I mean, I have to fast forward through gilly and the target lady every week, but Forte's Tim Calhoun character has been on maybe 3 times in the past 5 years, with each appearance hilarious. Abby Elliot is 5 billion times the sketch actress that Wiig is, and they tap her as the straightman foil to Wiig's buffoonish muggery far too often considering Wiig's only business dealings with Elliot in a just world would be to ask her how she likes her coffee before trotting down to retrieve her a cup and staying far far far far away from anything remotely resembling a television or movie camera. For the life of me, I can think of no reason short of blackmail or extortion that can justify the amount of screen time given to this talentless, unfunny woman. It's as if she's a small child who wrote a play for her parents, and instead of smiling and clapping politely, they bought sufficient stock in NBC to foist their idiot-child on the rest of the nation. She must be the kindest human on earth in person, resulting in everyone mutually agreeing to not hurt her feelings by telling her how her truly awful she is at comedy.

I haven't cared for the Gilly episodes since the first one. I think SNL is getting lazy. As for her look, I was reminded of an evil Little LuLu. Which I think was what the writers were going for, but the laugh has been played out...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Lulu

We hate that character and styling the Christmas clip show around her made as much sense as using her Target lady.

I agree. I hadn't watched SNL in a long time. Had no idea who gilly was. I actually thought Mickey Gilley. :) Watched this episode because I love classic SNL christmas. I found her annoying and got in the way. Sure as hell didn't deserve her own special.

SNL flat out sucks ass. The only part of that episode anyone watching it in my house even laughed at was Tonto, Frankenstein and Tarzan sing. And that's from, what, 1988?