Cecily Strong Left SNL With A Farewell That Was Equally Hilarious & Emotional

Saturday Night Live’s holiday episode this year was filled with more tears than expected. Just hours before the Dec. 17 episode aired, NBC announced longtime cast member Cecily Strong would be leaving the show after one last appearance. And she definitely went out with a memorable sendoff. Be sure to have some tissues nearby before you watch Cecily Strong’s final SNL sketches, because they are super emotional.

Strong was one of the most prominent members in SNL’s 2022 cast, having been on the series for 10 years since joining in 2012. Her exit midway through the season felt sudden, but not all too surprising considering her success outside the show and the recent mass exodus of longtime SNL cast members like Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant, both of whom joined the cast the same year as Strong.

Although Strong appeared in multiple sketches during her final show, two were extra-special chances for her to say goodbye. During Weekend Update, she reprised her chaotic complainer Cathy Anne character one last time. The cameo started out just as goofy as every other Cathy Anne appearance, but once she revealed she’d been given a life sentence in jail, it became clear that this was Strong saying her farewells. She even shouted out McKinnon and Bryant, joking they are her “friends on the inside.”

Strong did get a bit teary-eyed during that last Cathy Anne sketch, but the real emotional gut-punch came at the end of the episode when host Austin Butler and the rest of the SNL cast serenaded her with Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas.”

It was definitely an emotional night for both Strong and all her fans. Her departure marks the ninth SNL cast member to leave the show in 2022, a notably high number for the long-running sketch series, which usually only sheds a couple actors each year. Earlier in the year, McKinnon, Bryant, Kyle Mooney, and Pete Davidson exited the show, followed by Chris Redd, Alex Moffat, Melissa Villaseñor, and Aristotle Athari.

There have been a lot of touching goodbyes on SNL recently, but Strong’s musical sendoff is definitely one that fans will remember very fondly.