Cecily Strong Delivers Emotional Farewell On Saturday Night Live: ‘It’s Just My Time Now’

It got emotional on Saturday Night Live this weekend as another longtime cast member of the late-night sketch comedy series is saying goodbye.

The show announced that Cecily Strong would be leaving ahead of the holiday episode on Saturday, which was hosted by Austin Butler and featured returning musical guest Lizzo. They wrote on social media:

“Tonight we send off one of the best to ever do it. We’ll miss you, Cecily!”

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So, of course, the cast made sure to give her a great send-off! During the “Weekend Update,” the 38-year-old actress hopped on the segment as her popular character Cathy Anne, with a Santa hat on her head and cigarette in hand, to share that she wouldn’t be coming on the show anymore. Why is that? Well, Cathy was sentenced to life in prison:

“The crimes I confessed to you, here, for the past seven years finally caught up to me. Drug use, trespassing, destruction of private property, crack, impersonating a police horse, meth, and crack.”

LOLz. At one point, she broke character to tell the audience with tears in her eyes:

“Listen, listen. Everybody has to go to jail at some point, right? It’s just my time now. But I’ve had a lot of fun here, and I feel really lucky that I got to have so many of the best moments of my life in this place with these people that I love so much.”

Awww! See the emotional moment (below):

That wasn’t all. The final sketch of the night featured Kenan Thompson honoring Cecily for her 11 years (or eight years, as he joked) at “Radio Shack.” He expressed in the skit:

“Honestly, I don’t think radio shack could have survived this long without Cecily. Every time she came to work, she had a new character or new accent, or new impression that would blow you away. She’d have a power and joy to her performance that made you remember why you loved working at Radio Shack in the first place. I know I’m not supposed to say this as your boss, but I love you, Cecily.”

Then, Austin and the rest of the cast walked on stage and serenaded her with Elvis Presley’s Blue Christmas. Watch the tear-filled goodbye (below):

So touching!

Cecily brought so much laughter and joy to the show, and delivered some very powerful moments over the past 11 seasons! She will be truly missed!!! But besides the goodbyes, you can also ch-ch-check out the rest of the night’s highlights (below) – including a hilarious sketch of Austin portraying a classic Christmas character from a black-and-white movie lamenting about being alone this holiday season and two stellar performances from Lizzo!