An Appreciation Of 'SNL's' Beck Bennett, From Burnouts And Office Poopers To Baby CEOs

Bennett never quite became a marquee name on "Saturday Night Live" — but he smuggled plenty of heart, smarts and nuance onto the air.

Beck Bennett confirmed this week that he’s leaving “Saturday Night Live” after eight years as a cast member, meaning the show is saying goodbye to one of its most potent secret weapons.

Bennett, who came to Studio 8H from the Los Angeles sketch scene, found traction on “SNL” as the in-house Mike Pence and Vladimir Putin, as well as a go-to voiceover guy ― but his comic sensibilities always ran in some much stranger and more specific directions. Like Thomas Lennon on “The State” before him, Bennett on “SNL” was a weirdo hiding in plain sight, his open, pleasant face hinting at neither his genuine acting chops nor his readiness to follow the internal logic of any given sketch into screaming lunacy.

It’s probably not Bennett’s fate to be remembered as “SNL” royalty, up there with your Murphys and Rudolphs, your Ferrells and Farleys and Feys. But he more than acquitted himself in his near-decade on the show, whether he was delivering a spot-on Mr. Bean, turning on a dime from sitcom mugging to dawning horror, or just stealing entire sketches with a couple of lines.