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Kate McKinnon lost her Emmy, but she’s not worried

Constance Grady
Constance Grady is a senior correspondent on the Culture team for Vox, where since 2016 she has covered books, publishing, gender, celebrity analysis, and theater.

Kate McKinnon’s Emmy has embarked on a journey without her.

When McKinnon won the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy two weeks ago, she made history as the first person to win an Emmy for their work as a Saturday Night Live cast member in the show’s 41-year history. Which would be especially exciting if she had a trophy she could use to commemorate the occasion.

Unfortunately, hers seems to be missing.

As McKinnon explained to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show Wednesday night, when her name was called at the Emmys, she was so shocked that she blacked out. When she came to, she was sitting alone in her hotel room, eating a plate of spaghetti — and her Emmy was nowhere to be found.

“I have such vague memories of this,” she said, “but I walked offstage and someone took it from my hand, and now I don’t know where it is.”

It’s definitely with someone, though. Fallon produced photos of the Emmy and its series of adventures: posing with a group of unknown women, posing with a small child who McKinnon thinks might be her manager’s son, and, finally, tucked safe and sound into a hotel bed, exhausted after its wandering. “That Emmy partied harder than I did,” McKinnon noted.

She’s happy to give the Emmy its space, though. “Have an adventure,” she told it. “Come back to me when you feel it’s appropriate.”

She doesn’t mind if it takes a while. “My Emmy could be like Forrest Gump,” she said, “and wind up in the middle of every historical event for the next 30 years, and then just come back to me. That would be beautiful!”

I look forward to seeing The Adventures of Kate McKinnon’s Emmy in theaters in 2049.

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