Back in 2020, Duck Dynasty star Sadie Robertson shared an Instagram photo of her tongue, explaining that it looked “weird” due to a condition called geographic tongue (yes, it's real!). Now, Saturday Night Live alum Kate McKinnon has also opened up about having the same harmless condition and even joked about it.
Kate McKinnon said "it's gross," but that doesn't mean she is not proud of her tongue's interesting look.
“I took a photo of my tongue and sent it to an actor friend of mine,” Kate revealed in a recent interview. “We both have the same medical condition. It’s called geographic tongue — your tongue sheds in patches and ends up looking like an atlas, hence the name.”
She added humorously, “We brag about how ‘geographic’ we are on any given day. Maybe I shouldn’t be saying this in a magazine.”
Geographic tongue is an inflammatory but harmless condition that affects the surface of the tongue. Normally, the tongue is covered with tiny, pinkish-white bumps called papillae, which are fine, hairlike structures.
With this condition, some patches lose their papillae and they seem smooth and red, often with slightly raised edges. These shifting patches give the tongue a map-like appearance, which is how the condition got its name.
The comedian had always dreamt of being on Saturday Night Live, but left when her body called quits. Kate was on the NBC sketch comedy series from 2012-2022.
“All I ever wanted to do in my whole life was be on Saturday Night Live. So I did, I loved it, I had the best decade, and then I was just like—my body was tired, and I felt like it was time," Kate said in a 2022 interview.