"Saturday Night Live" star Cecily Strong ended her final show with a serenade from "Elvis" star and "SNL" host Austin Butler, who led the cast in a rendition of the King of Rock'n Roll's Christmas classic, "Blue Christmas."
The final sketch of 2022 began in a "Radioshack," with cast member Kenan Thompson playing the role of Radioshack boss "Frank Lasagna," who says how much he loved Cecily.
"Honestly, I don't think that Radioshack could have survived this long without Cecily," Thompson said in the sketch. "Every time she came to work, she had a new character, or a new accent, or a new impression that would just blow you away. She had a power and a joy to her performance that made you remember why you loved working at Radioshack in the first place."
"I know I am not supposed to say this as your boss," Thompson said as "Frank Lasagna." "But, I love you Cecily."
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"I love you too, Mr. Frank Lasagna," Strong replied.
Then, Thompson tells Strong that they got her a special going away present: an Elvis impersonator. Out walks Butler and the famous Studio 8H stage takes its natural form as he begins to sing Elvis' hit song.
Members of the cast join in on the singing, in what becomes an emotional farewell to one of the show's biggest stars. Strong joined "SNL" in 2012, and began co-hosting Weekend Update alongside Seth Meyers in 2013. She would later co-host the joke news segment alongside Colin Jost before returning to sketches for season 40 in 2014.
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Strong has been nominated for two Emmys during her run on "SNL," which is the longest for any female cast member in the show's history.
Earlier in the show, Strong returned to the Weekend Update desk as her recurring character Cathy Anne, a cigarette-smoking drug addict who does not hold back her controversial or misguided opinions.
"I'm a little emo tonight. Truth is I'm here to say goodbye," Strong told Weekend Update co-host Michael Che. She would go on to tell Che she is leaving to go to "prison."
"I think it's actually going to give me some much needed stability," Strong joked as Cathy Anne. "And I'm not just scared, because I got friends on the inside (she points to a picture of former cast members Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon in orange jumpsuits). And they seem to be doing okay."
Strong also could not forget to give her former co-host Jost a shoutout, showing a picture of the two of them on set for one of their Weekend Update segments.
"Listen, every has to go to jail at some point. It's just my time now," Strong said as her character Anne. "But I 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."
"But take that with a grain of salt, being that I have addiction issues," Strong joked.
It is unclear what exactly Strong will do next now that she is leaving "Saturday Night Live," but she is expected to star in season two of the Apple TV+ musical comedy "Schmigadoon!," which is co-executive produced by "SNL show runner Lorne Michaels.
