Actress, comedian, writer, and now podcaster Vanessa Bayer is the queen of subtle humor. The Cleveland, Ohio native grew up appreciating comedy and enjoyed making her friends laugh with characters and impressions, but didn’t think being funny would be a way she could make a living. Bayer explained to Jesse David Fox on an episode of Good One: A Podcast About Jokes that the first time her approach to comedy shifted, and she was able to see it as a viable career was when she was a student at the University of Pennsylvania. It was there that she auditioned for and got into Bloomers, the nation’s first collegiate all-female sketch comedy and musical parody troupe. “We would just get to write a lot of stuff and do a lot of stuff, and it was when I kinda realized I could do comedy.” It was there that she had a chance to flesh out some character ideas and try out different voices, both of which come in handy at Saturday Night Live.
Bayer brought the same passion she had for Bloomers to every opportunity she pursued. She secured internships at Sesame Street and Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and started doing open mics. (Stand-up is where she first tried out her famous character Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy.) She also studied improv in Chicago at popular spots including iO Theater, The Second City, and Annoyance Theater, and worked at an ad agency. She even took her comedy chops to the sea, performing on a cruise ship as part of Second City. All of these eclectic experiences, plus her father's sense of humor, helped her cultivate her unique style of comedy.
After auditioning for SNL with impressions of Miley Cyrus and Madonna and a nerdy little boy character named Austin (who she also credits as a beginning-stage Jacob), Bayer joined the cast of the legendary sketch show as a featured player in 2010. At the beginning of what would be a seven-year run on the show, Bayer was surrounded by long-time cast members such as Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, and Andy Samberg. But by her fourth season, she was suddenly one of the most experienced performers on set. She quickly ascended the comedy ladder and became one of the strongest people on the show. Bayer’s number of precocious and innocent children characters, along with her uncanny ability to inhabit a timid and disrespected housewife, are just a few of the reasons why she earned an Emmy nomination for her clever contributions to the show.
Let’s look back at some of Vanessa Bayer’s best moments from Saturday Night Live.
The Miley Cyrus Show
She’s got guests and a show, which is indeed pretty cool. In a recurring talk show parody sketch, Bayer shows us what it would be like if Miley Cyrus was to host her own talk show. And it’s loud. Bayer hilariously captures the over-the-top Miley from her Disney Channel days as she tries to transition from kid star to mature adult. Between her rambling questions, cringey “comedy monologues,” and her constant fending off of compliments from her dad and bandleader Billy Ray Cyrus (Jason Sudeikis), taking Miley seriously becomes one tricky task.
Awkward Flirts
So, um, this sketch is really, really…awkward. Two very socially inept neighbors Sarah (Bayer) and Evan (Kyle Mooney) have crushes on each other, but they are having a very tough time articulating their feelings. These floor mates take flirting to a whole new level of yikes when their intimate interactions in the hallway and laundry room inevitably turn sour. If only they could say how they really felt about each other. In an episode of Bayer’s podcast How Did We Get Weird?, her and Mooney talked about how the sketch was inspired by a similar bit they would do whenever they saw each other in the hallway at Saturday Night Live.
Weekend Update: Bashar al-Assad’s Best Friends from Growing Up
Ever wonder how Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad would behave at a baby shower? Bashar’s two best friends from growing up (Fred Armisen and Bayer) stopped by Weekend Update to tell Seth Meyers all about how great of a guy the President of Syria actually is. The press paints him as a tyrannical and violent dictator, but his long-time pals are here to set the record straight. According to them, Bashar’s reliable and fun, but, like, sometimes, he’s, um, sort of self-obsessed and inconsiderate? Bayer and Armisen have played the best friends of several controversial and deadly people, including Kim Jong-Un, Muammar Gaddafi, and King Richard III.
Weekend Update: Romantic Comedy Expert
Weekend Update romantic comedy expert Daisy Rose (Bayer) gives her thoughts to Michael Che on the latest television rom-coms to hit the small screen. The segment turns meta once Daisy forces a meet-cute on an unsuspecting and unamused Che during her time behind the Update desk. Bayer perfectly nails each romantic comedy trope and then spills her heart out to Che while she’s accompanied by cheesy background music. So, what do you say? Were these two meant to be together? Probably not.
Thanksgiving Guest
Okay, yeah, this is the weirdest sketch on this list. It’s Thanksgiving, and this family is particularly excited because their son Trey (Josh Hutcherson) is coming home from college and introducing his family to his new girlfriend. The big catch, however, is that his girlfriend Elise (Bayer) is a um…well she’s a turkey. And that’s extra awkward because on Thanksgiving, people typically eat...turkey. Bayer’s reserved and mild-mannered performance somehow manages to keep this sketch surprisingly grounded.
Weekend Update: Rachel from Friends on ‘90s Nostalgia
People can’t quite get enough of the ‘90s, and Vanessa Bayer is certainly no exception. Luckily, she does a killer impression of Rachel Green, Jennifer Aniston’s character from the immensely popular ‘90s sitcom Friends. Bayer’s Rachel stops by Weekend Update to give Colin Jost her take on why people are nostalgic for shows from that era and why so many are getting a reboot. This fun segment is crashed by the actual Jennifer Aniston, who is overwhelmed by Bayer’s friendship.
Weekend Update: Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy
You know him, you love him, it’s Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy. Bayer’s shy and socially awkward Jewish boy character made his SNL debut in a bar mitzvah sketch with Gwenyth Paltrow, but quickly found his home at the Weekend Update desk cozied up to Seth Meyers, who he always tried to impress with statements he passed off as jokes. When he’s not overly enunciating every word of his pre-written appearance, Jacob is bearing his toothy grin and trying to keep his composure.
Bayer played this crowd-pleaser a whopping 10 times on the show and remains in awe at the number of A-list stars who became hard core fans. “People said such nice things. Lorne [Michaels] really loved it. And when Lorne loves something, it’s kind of rare.” And if the poised Michaels expressing his admiration for Jacob wasn’t enough, Bayer found out that Steven Spielberg, Paul McCartney, and Billy Crystal (the latter of whom played Jacob’s dad on the show) were also huge fans.
Weekend Update: Laura Parsons on the Election
Can bad news sound better if a sweet little kid says it? No, actually, it’ll sound a lot worse. Disney Channel star Laura Parsons (Bayer) stops by once again as part of the “Newscaster of Tomorrow” program to share the latest (and grossest) headlines with the SNL audience. What makes this even more unsettling is the fact that Laura is using this time in the spotlight to audition for the Mary Poppins reboot.
Poetry Class
It’s safe to assume that the last thing students in detention want to do is learn how to write poetry. Nevertheless, Ms. Meadows is determined to get everyone’s creative juices flowing! The long-haired, plained dressed woman never ceases smiling, no matter how disinterested and sarcastic the students prove to be. In addition to her passion for poetry, she also has a very pronounced speech impediment? Or is it some sort of nervous tick? Either way she sounds like a sickly dolphin. Things only get worse when she has a strange connection with a student (Miley Cyrus).
Totino’s Pizza Trilogy
She may not have a name, but she has a purpose: to feed her hungry guys. But what happens when her hungry guys aren’t hungry? Bayer embodies the subservient yet cheerful housewife trope with hilarious ease and leaves us wondering what’s really going on behind that forced smile. Is she fulfilled? In a loveless marriage? Will she ever find her own Totino? What started out as a Totino’s pizza rolls commercial parody in 2015 with Bayer and J.K. Simmons morphed over the course of three years into an X-Files spoof and then culminated in an erotic French film with Kristen Stewart. (Yes, you read that correctly.)
Vanessa Bayer writes and stars in the upcoming Showtime series I Love That For You with Molly Shannon, and hosts the weekly nostalgia-driven podcast How Did We Get Weird? with her brother Jonah Bayer.