Kate McKinnon’s Barbie has been my favorite Barbie ever since we first saw her in the teaser trailer for the upcoming Barbie movie. Since then, we’ve learned that she’s an oracle-like figure, giving Margo Robbie’s Barbie the choice between staying in Barbie Land despite its growing problems, or journeying to the real world to learn what’s out there. The fact that McKinnon, already a queer icon, gives Barbie the choice in the form of a high heel and a Birkenstock makes that scene even better.
Now, a new promo tells us a little more about McKinnon’s Barbie, including her official name!
In the clip, McKinnon’s Barbie introduces herself as Weird Barbie. She confirms that she’s always in the splits, lives in a weird house, and has marker on her face and a funky haircut. Apparently, humans (plus Allan) visit Barbie Land in the movie, and Weird Barbie welcomes them to her home. One of the humans gasps and says that she had a weird Barbie as a kid, and explains to her friend that Weird Barbie is what happens when you play with your Barbies too hard.
Weird Barbie! Personally, I’m still fond of the name I gave her, Marker Face, but I’ll take it.
The Weird Barbie clip gets to the profound truth at the heart of Weird Barbie: she is what happens when you play with your Barbies too hard. As I wrote in my previous two Weird Barbie articles (can you tell I love her?), while I was mainly a My Little Pony girl, the one Barbie I remember the most clearly is Robot Barbie. Robot Barbie was born when I gave my Barbie doll a crew cut and covered her face with blue ballpoint pen. A pristine toy is a toy that hasn’t reached its full potential, and Weird Barbie is what you get when you love a doll and let your imagination run wild.
Kate McKinnon helped develop Weird Barbie’s look
One of the best things about Weird Barbie is that McKinnon was involved in creating that immediately recognizable style. In a recent Good Morning America interview, McKinnon explained how much thought went into Weird Barbie’s look.
A lot of discussions went into the placement of like, ‘Where does the marker go on your face?’ and ‘What is the shape of the squiggle?’ and ‘How chopped is the hair?’ It’s based on the Barbie that I think we all had, where you’d cut the hair off, and burn the clothes, and draw on it. Actually, a lot of thought goes into all of those elements, and so it was very exciting to work on that look.
I can’t wait to see what Weird Barbie gets up to! If only I still had my old Robot Barbie to admire while I wait for Barbie to come out.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
