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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Considering I thought the Steve Buscemi-hosted episode of “SNL” was going to feature an appearance from Buscemi’s friend, Adam Sandler, who would perform “Hanukkah Song #456,” complete with a verse parodying the recent failure of Jack & Jill, I was pleasantly surprised with what actually aired. It wasn’t as good as the Jason Segel or Melissa McCarthy episodes, but it had one extremely funny sketch, a bunch of OK ones, and a few “meh”‘s thrown in there for good measure, too. In other words, it was a B, B- episode of “SNL.”

Buscemi was clearly reading off the cue cards for most of the night (it was really obvious in that awful Sue sketch), and though he was most often relegated to side character duty, he did an admirable job. It was a little odd, though, that the only mention of “Boardwalk Empire” came during the monologue — it seems like it’d be an easy show to parody, and I would have loved to have seen Bill Hader as Richard and Kristen Wiig as Lucy.

Clips and commentary — and Colin Quinn’s fake Twitter bitching about a sketch — of some of the episode’s specific segments on the following pages.

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Oh man, what an awesome week this is shaping up to be. I didn’t think anything could trump the news of Osama bin Laden being killed, but this certainly comes close: Kristen Wiig has retired Gilly, the Worst Character in SNL History™. (I’m not sure why she’d trademark such a thing; I just report the facts.) The revelation comes from an interview in Time that buries the lede on the second page:

Because her characters are simple, she’s smart enough to retire them long before other SNL cast members would. She’ll no longer do Penelope the one-upper or Gilly the mischievous schoolgirl, not even at [Lorne] Michaels’ request. [Time via Vulture]

I’m happy to see Penelope go, too, but at least Penelope was funny at one point. Gilly has never been anything more than an agonizingly long six-minute sketch in which the same joke gets repeated three times. Wiig is one of my favorite “SNL” cast members, and that’s part of what made Gilly so painful. I could never watch a Gilly sketch without thinking, “Why does this talented person person hate me so much? What did I ever do to her?”

And you know the best part about Gilly being gone? You can celebrate her death in the streets without being scolded by pretentious academics.

Kristen Wiig is one of my favorite actors on “Saturday Night Live,” but man oh man do I LOATHE her character Gilly. I feel like “SNL” should give advance notice when it’s going to air a Gilly sketch so that I can put up chicken wire in front of my TV. In an interview with MovieLine, Wiig acknowledged her divisive character:

Do you feel that Gilly is polarizing? I feel it’s a character that people either love or they don’t particularly like.
Uh… yeah, probably. I mean, the first time that I did it, my mom, the next day was like, “Oh, I did not like that. That new character you did, I did not like her!” [Laughs]

I’m glad Kristen can laugh about that, because I certainly never have.

Wiig also pulled back the curtain on the Garth and Kat songs she does with Fred Armisen — one of “SNL’s” few moments of true improv:

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SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas (NBC) — This is a repeat from last year, but I just wanted to point this out so you can be sure to avoid it. WOOF. My absolute least favorite character from my least favorite recurring sketch.

Skating with the Stars (ABC) — Season finale. Wow, this is hard to believe: ABC finally made a show that was too girly and crappy for ABC’s crappy girly viewers to watch. I mean, these people watch “The Bachelorette.” The bar is almost unthinkably low.

Auction Hunters (Spike) — Season finale. In this episode, people hunt auctions. Or so I would assume.

Million Dollar Money Drop (Fox) — Night 2 of its four-night run. Is anyone else bothered by the inclusion of the word “Money” in the title? Wouldn’t “Million Dollar Drop” be sufficient, especially considering that the British version is called “Million Pound Drop”? If anything, the extra “Money” belongs in the British version, since dropping a million pounds could mean losing weight. And why am I so anal retentive about crap like this when I’ve got laundry on my floor and dirty dishes in the sink? I hate my brain sometimes.

16 & Pregnant (MTV) — Priceless quote from Yahoo TV: “Pregnant teen Ashley is trying to do the responsible thing by giving up her baby for adoption.” Funny, I would have thought the responsible thing would be to, you know, NOT GET PREGNANT.