Fred Armisen's 'SNL' Characters We'll Miss The Most

Hulu / "Saturday Night Live"Fred Armisen as Steve Jobs debuts the iPhone in a "Saturday Night Live" sketch in 2007.Cerebral funnyman Fred Armisen confirmed this week that he is leaving "Saturday Night Live" after 11 years, leaving a hole in the sketchy comedy cast that will be difficult to fill.

In an interview with Splitsider, Armisen explained that the timing felt right, and he felt too distracted by the show he co-created, writes, and stars in: IFC's critical darling, "Portlandia."

"I didn't do any kind of official announcement, but I really felt like it was obvious," Armisen told Splitsider about his departure.

Armisen says of his final moments at Studio 8H: "[It was] an ending that was a love letter to all the music I grew up with, and also to my friends and to 'SNL' and to Lorne and to the cast. There was a lot of emotion attached to it, but it was a very positive emotion."

Watch the goodbye clip below.

To celebrate his illustrious run on "SNL," here are the 10 Fred Armisen recurring characters we'll miss the most:

1. Garth is one-half of the chronically unprepared singing duo, Garth and Kat, who improvise their holiday tunes on "Weekend Update."

2. The childhood best friend of Muammar al-Gaddafi and his wife swing by the "Weekend Update" desk to trash-talk the Libyan dictator.

3. Lawrence Welk, host of the classic musical variety show "The Lawrence Welk Show," gets thoroughly weirded out by an oddball member of a Finger Lakes-based sister act, played by Kristin Wiig.

4. Producer Roger Brush fills in for the sweet female host of a Dr. Phil-like talk show, but he's rather insensitive to the mostly women audience's needs.

5. A firey Joy Behar holds her own as co-host of "The View," often screeching, "So what? Who cares?"

6. Former New York Governor David Paterson owns up to being hated by his constituents, jokes about his partial blindness, and relishes dumping on the state of New Jersey.

7. Larry King isn't afraid to poke fun at his physical appearance on his nightly interview program, saying that he is "90% shoulders."

8. The Gay Couple from New Jersey, donning track suits and gold crosses, employ mafia stereotypes in their quest for marriage equality.

9. President Obama takes a rest from the Oval Office to film this jazzy ad spot, promising to "keep it cool" during his second term.

10. A timid and maniacle-looking Prince rocks a purple velvet suit, uses Beyonce as his human mouthpiece, and sings like he's about to sneeze.