Kristen Wiig Channels ‘Stiff, Distant, and Weird’ Lana Del Rey For SNL Sketch

As you may recall, Lana Del Rey’s performance on SNL a few weeks ago was “impossibly awful.” The backlash for the subpar performance was just as swift and arguably disproportionate as we’ve come to expect from backlashes towards young females trying to do something outspoken and creative, especially when there’s a rich family and a PR machine involved in the process and the performer in question isn’t strictly a bubble gum pop or dance act. The reaction was strong enough to warrant its own Taiwanese animation from NMA and a “Leave Lana alone” rant from Whitney Cummings, one of the last people I’d want defending me when internet butthurt commenters are already angry at me. At least Nickelback wasn’t coming to her defense.

Then Pitchfork — arbiter of all things petulant and preciously hipster — called Del Rey’s new record “the album equivalent of a faked orgasm.” Rolling Stone gave her album two stars after having given three stars to a Justin Beiber album (ouch).

But Lana Del Rey turned some of this around with a good performance on Letterman last week, and Letterman was thickly laying on the praise. Now SNL is also coming to her defense, in the same episode that Bon Iver went all two microphones on us, as well with a Weekend Update sketch featuring Kristen Wiig’s impersonation of Del Rey.

Among the highlights, Wiig (as Del Rey) responded to criticism of Elizabeth Grant’s adoption of Lana Del Rey as her stage name:

Then followed that with another OH SNAP moment:

It wasn’t entirely complimentary, of course:

Regardless of whether or not you think Del Rey is inauthentic and untalented, I think we can all agree that Kristen Wiig is awesome. Here’s the full video:

(H/T: Buzzfeed)