Here’s a Surprisingly Accurate Dolly Parton Impression from Saturday Night Live

Everybody knows that Dolly Parton is a true American hero. Still, even for Dolly, 2020 has been an amazing year. She donated $1 million to COVID research. She’s one of the few country music stars who’ve publicly supported Black Lives Matter. She saved a kid from getting run over by a car. As somebody wrote on Twitter this weekend, Dolly Parton is the real life version of those Chuck Norris jokes.

In honor of her eternal perfection, last night’s Saturday Night Live paid a bit of tribute to Dolly. Melissa Villaseñor, a master mimic of voices, came out on Weekend Update to discuss her favorite Christmas songs, but instead used it to get a Dolly Parton impression she’d supposedly been trying to get on air for a while. That’s all part of the joke, of course, a set up for Villaseñor to sing Christmas carols set to Dolly Parton’s music. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a funny joke, but Villaseñor does do a great Dolly, nailing her tone and inflection while singing snippets of a few of her songs. If I listened to this with my eyes closed I’m not sure how long it’d take me to realize it wasn’t the real thing.

Check out the video below, and hey Melissa, how about recording a cover of “Me and Little Andy” next?