SNL Totally Humbled Kimberly Guilfoyle With Brutal Take On Her Most Embarrassing Moment

Cecily Strong is a natural when it comes to mocking America's most popular right-wing women. Her wine-guzzling Jeanine Pirro impression on "Saturday Night Live's" Weekend Update once left segment co-host Colin Jost in tears, while her spoof on Marjorie Taylor Greene perfectly highlighted some of the Georgia representative's most embarrassing moments. However, her interpretation of Kimberly Guilfoyle's memorable speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention was the biggest reminder of Strong's comedic genius.

Guilfoyle got everyone talking after she recited an overly passionate speech to the audience at the RNC, and awkwardly concluded with a tinnitus-inducing phrase: "THE BEST IS YET TO COME!" A wave of trollers took to X, formerly Twitter, to mock the ex-fiancé of Donald Trump Jr., including Bette Midler. The "Beaches" star — one of the many celebs who can't stand Guilfoyle — Tweeted at the time (via The Wrap): "Can't wait for Cecily Strong to play Kimberly Guilfoyle on SNL!!! So much material, so little time."

Midler must have some sway with Lorne Michaels because in December 2022, Strong gave a dazzling performance of Guilfoyle during the cold open of her last episode on the sketch comedy show as a full-fledged cast member. As James Austin Johnson did his uncanny impression of Donald Trump announcing his Christmas "NFT," or "nifty," trading cards, he brought out Don Jr. (Mikey Day) and Guilfoyle (Strong) to announce her new holiday CD, "Now That's What No One Calls Music." Strong hilariously pitched her character's album with, "I guarantee you'll SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE!"

The comedian's take on Kimberly Guilfoyle's unnecessarily earsplitting speech was as satifsying to Cecily Strong herself as it was to Bette Midler, and the rest of Guilfoyle's ditractors. Before her 'Saturday Night Live' exit, Strong told the hosts of "The View" about her love of playing exuberant characters like Guilfoyle. "You know, I think I just enjoy over-the-top women," she said. "Especially because I feel in my own life I'm a bit more shy and reserved. So, you know, show me a woman yelling for a manager in a coffee shop and I'm like, 'That's all I wanna watch,' because how does one become that?"

Strong's political commentary hasn't just been for humor's sake. In a February 2025 interview with Time Magazine, the "Schmigadoon!" actor talked about the reality behind her "Goober the Clown" character, which she performed in the wake of Texas' 2021 six-week ban on abortion. "I come on 'Update' as a woman who had an abortion when she was 23, and I'm in a clown suit with the nose and everything," she said. "I make jokes and talk in a funny voice but I'm just Cecily and I had an abortion when I was 23." Strong said that Goober is the character she is "proudest of" because of it's impact on the narrative surrounding abortion.