Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | December 19, 2025
This may sound hypocritical coming from someone who spent seven seasons beating up on SNL’s Kyle Mooney, but leave Jane Wickline alone. Invariably, there are two things you can expect to see on social media the Sunday after an SNL episode airs this season: delight over Ashley Padilla’s increased screen time (which has somehow started to generate backlash) and endless commentary about the season’s most divisive cast member, Jane Wickline.
The vitriol ranges from “she can’t act” to “she’s glued to the cue cards” to somehow blaming her for Heidi Gardner’s exit. Her sketch performances are frequently compared to Pete Davidson’s, and never favorably.
But I think she’s great, right down to the deadpan cue card delivery. In fact, that’s what separates her offbeat, weird brand of humor from Kyle Mooney’s. She doesn’t seem like she’s trying so hard or demanding the audience laugh. She’s different. She’s unusual. And while her piano songs on “Update” may not be everyone’s thing, they’re unlike anything else we’ve ever seen on SNL. I, too, stand with Vecna.
And easily my favorite recurring SNL segment right now is “The Couple That You Can’t Believe Is Together,” if only because it perfectly pairs Wickline’s goth girl oddness with Marcello Hernandez’s manic energy.
And maybe she does read the cue cards a little too closely. Still, her “Throw ass! Throw ass!” was the funniest line reading of last week’s admittedly weak episode.
I think she’s great precisely because she often feels like a round peg in the square hole of sketch comedy. She may not be an everyday player, but she excels at briefly entering a scene and then getting out. She’s like a walking WTF, ready to be deployed at any moment, although I could do with less “Cousin Planet,” if only because it’s too Mooney for my liking.
At the end of the day, not every cast member is meant to be a utility player, and SNL is better when it makes room for people who feel slightly out of step with the machine. You don’t have to love everything she does, but the insistence that she doesn’t belong misses the point entirely. She belongs because she doesn’t quite fit, and that’s exactly why SNL needs her.
