Three years ago today, we were subjected to Gilly for the first time – and we still haven’t quite recovered.

Since “SNL” premiered in 1975, the show has seen more than 800 recurring characters, according to the indispensable SNL Archives. Many have been hilarious and used sparingly (like Blue Öyster Cult cowbell player Gene Frenkle), but many more have been dreadful, overexposed, and increasingly nerve-grating through repetition. Because obviously unfunny characters become funnier the more they’re featured.

Here are 10 “SNL” recurring characters who should have stopped after an appearance or two (minimum four appearances), including the three-year-old Gilly. Finally, she actually has something to say “sorry” for.

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I just assume everyone in Portland dresses like this.

“Portlandia” stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein will lend their voices to a next-season episode of “The Simpsons,” according to TV Line. Creator Matt Groening hails from Portland, leading some to believe this definitively means that Springfield is in Oregon (it’s not). But considering his involvement with the long-running series at this point (nothing at all, nothing at all…), the casting move has more to do with the “Simpsons” on-going quest to have every person ever on the show.

The duo will play part of a “cool” family that moves from Portland to Springfield and becomes the Simpsons’ new neighbors. Homer desperately tries to befriend them, but Marge is skeptical that being cool isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. (TV Line)

It’s getting tougher and tougher to NOT be able to connect our favorite current shows to “The Simpsons” in a single step (One Degree of Mmm…Bacon?…I’m sorry). “Breaking Bad”: check. “Mad Men”: check. “Boardwalk Empire”: check. “Game of Thrones”: check. “Parks and Recreation”: check. “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”: check. “Louie”: check. “30 Rock”: check. “Community”: check. Anything Anthony Bourdain related: check.

BUT, off the top of my head, I can’t think of a connection between “The Simpsons” and “Justified,” “Homeland,” “Archer,” or “Eastbound and Down,” meaning they need to cast H. Jon Benjamin and Timothy Olyphant as two secret-agent detectives who go undercover as nuclear power plant employees to investigate whether Homer’s cocky new assistant, voiced by Danny McBride, is who he says he is…IN IRAQ. Practically writes itself.

Ha ha ha, I love you, click-baiting headlines. Below you’ll find video of Helen Mirren’s promo clips for this weekend’s “Saturday Night Live.” None of them are particularly funny, but she does at one point pretend to be horny, and the fact that she does it while touching Fred Armisen is further proof that she’s a great actress. Hot damn. Look at her. Sixty-five years old and still got her fastball. She’s the Nolan Ryan of women I want to teach me about sex. (I can’t wait to learn!)

Seriously, can you believe she was born during World War II? Well, kind of. She was born after V-E Day but before V-J Day, and since she’s British, I guess the war was technically over for her family. But I’m not here to argue about the semantics of when World War II ended, I’m just here for Helen Mirren looking like a sexy-ass silver fox.

Heh heh, “V-J Day.”

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Here’s a promo for “Portlandia,” a sketch show coming to IFC in January that will mock Pacific Northwest granola types. It stars Fred Armisen of “SNL” and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, and the first season promises appearances by Kyle MacLachlan, Heather Graham, Jason Sudeikis, Selma Blair, and Aubrey Plaza (who appears in the video).

I’m not exactly a fan of Armisen, but this has a chance to win me over. It’s definitely time that the Northwest’s 21st century eco-yupsters got made fun of. All it’s gonna take is a recurring gag featuring a white guy with dredlocks getting beaten by policemen, and this will instantly be my new favorite show.

"Shell art is OVER!"

[Pitchfork via Vulture]

Paul Rudd hosted “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, and it was a pretty disappointing show, even by my own forgiving standards for “SNL.” Paul McCartney was given time to play four songs, which is understandable since he was a Beatle, but is NOT understandable when most of those songs are Wings songs. “Band on the Run”? Seriously? In 2010? Screw you, McCartney.

“SNL” also wasted Rudd’s comedic talents on my least favorite recurring sketch, the Kissing Family. (Haha, relatives making out. It’s funny because it’s gay incest.) And I now fast forward through the cold open the second I see Fred Armisen’s Barack Obama, because I know that it’s just going to be five minutes of me waiting for a laugh that never comes.

However, criticism aside, there were some highlights. Click through for the best of the show. And yes, they’re Hulu videos, so you foreigners will just have to busy yourself with government health care while we Americans enjoy online video clips.

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