Today in TV History: Happy Birthday To Vanessa Bayer, Possessor of Quiet Comedic Dignity

Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone. 

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: November 14, 1981

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT:  Vanessa Bayer joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in the fall of 2010, in a freshman class that included Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah. Of that season 36 cast, only those three and Bobby Moynihan and Kenan Thompson remain with the show. Which, yes, makes Bayer one of the old guard. And while she’s always stealthily been one of the show’s best performers, her style of performance has often been less flashy than her co-stars. The one exception to that rule has always been her Miley Cyrus impersonation, though fate even deep-sixed that one when Miley underwent her transformation from adorable pop goober to molly’d-up provocateur.

What I’ve always most loved Bayer for is the way she has always been able to ground a sketch in a kind of soft-spoken, almost empathetic brand of lunacy. It’s why she has been the best straight-man the show has had in a long time. I always point to the Maya Rudolph-Kristen Wiig “Super Showcase” sketch when I talk about this, because as that sketch started breaking down and Rudolph, Wiig, and Bill Hader all lost it, there was Bayer, still relatively new to the show, staying completely in character and nailing deadpan line after deadpan line, which only served to make the chaos around her even funnier. It was then that I started pointing out what I called Vanessa Bayer’s Quiet Dignity.

You can see Vanessa Bayer’s Quiet Dignity when she’s playing straight characters in sketches, yes, but it’s also there when she’s the focal point. Think of her hippie poetry teacher, her flight attendant getting thrown from the plane, or, best of all, Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy on Weekend Update.

Bayer’s best work all has a sense of composure to it, even under the most harried of circumstances. It’s always been so impressive to me. Here’s hoping she has a quiet, dignified birthday, or at least one that’s pretty cool.

Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.