September 29, 2024

"Saturday Night Live" cold opens with lots of political impersonations — including Dana Carvey as Joe Biden.

Scroll ahead if you must — to 10:23 — but don't miss Dana Carvey:

 Also — beginning at 2:22 — Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz.

Maya Rudolph does Kamala Harris well, but the show's urgent need for us to love Kamala makes it too hard to like what Rudolph is able to do. The show presumes we agree politically and will simple-mindedly experience fun as "Kamala" has "fun" (and that's how Harris's campaign feels to me). I resist feeling the candidate's emotions as enacted on the political stage. And, for political satire, I want to laugh at her. Speak to me as someone on the outside. Don't treat me like a willing guest at her party. 

Sample line, spoken by the Trump impersonator: "We had this in the bag, but then they did a switcheroo and they swapped out Biden with Kamala. And now everything is chaos. They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. They're taking your pets, and they're doing freak offs. They're doing freak offs with the dogs, and they're making the geese watch. It's very sad. It's very sad. They're doing a Diddy."

ADDED: Mixing the P. Diddy story with the Haitians-in-Ohio story: Is that racist? It would be considered racist if Trump did it. It's in the black-people-remind-me-of-black-people mode. But in the sketch they have the Trump character combining the 2 topics, so if it's racist, it looks as though the racist is Trump. Clever? That's how you (try to) get away with it.

ALSO: For clarification, I substantially rewrote first 2 sentences of the paragraph that begins "Maya Rudolph does Kamala Harris well...."

49 comments:

Crimso said...

What, no Seth Meyers with a hammer?

Kevin said...

Mixing the P. Diddy story with the Haitians-in-Ohio story: Is that racist?

They had to talk about Diddy, but they don’t want to talk about Diddy, so they had “Trump” talk about him. Linking Diddy to cats and dogs downplays the story in the minds of their viewers. Problem solved.

Dave Begley said...

Who played Doug Emhoff? The audience seemed to know him.

Mr. D said...

Andy Samberg was playing Emhoff. .

Mr. D said...

They are trying way too hard to sell Kamala.

William said...

Not funny.

RAH said...

I loved their depiction of Joe Biden. This was more funny even with Trump and Vance. Their mocking of David Muir was well done. More even handed humor. Mock everyone .

Big Mike said...

But in the sketch they have the Trump character combining the 2 topics, so if it's racist, it looks as though the racist is Trump. Clever? That's how you (try to) get away with it.

Well you may remember that they did get away with it, using Tina Fey to portray Sarsh Palin. I was later amazed to discover how few of my colleagues and acquaintances knew that the US does border Russia, and that the border runs between an Alaskan island in the Aleutian chain and an island chain that is part of the Russian Kamchatka region. Palin never said she can see Russia from her house, but she did say her state borders Russia, and so it does.

Kate said...

Didn't Carvey play HW? Yes. That was a tough gig. Bush had few character tics to choose from.

J2 said...

How did Sean Connery get tagged?

Leland said...

I’ve thought, since becoming Vice President, Kamala was always trying to impersonate Maya Rudolph to be as likable.

wild chicken said...

I was hoping Dana Carvey would lapse into his Ross Perot shtick. Oh well.

jaydub said...

Who played Willie Brown? Oh, never mind.

michaele said...

Not bad and it did elicit some smiles. Maya Rudolf needs to get waay more active with her hands to really nail it. Kamala's hands are almost always prominently in the picture and they look like she is weighing good sized melons. I have never figured out why she can't control that weird habit. Whoever did Tim Walz really captured his over the top whole body wild animation. He's like the tube creatures outside of car washes and mattress stores. Dare I say it...he's just weird.

narciso said...

They painted a marxist dunderhead as likeable

Iman said...

“Guess what and by the way…” a few chuckles in there.

J L Oliver said...

I skimmed this post due to only a slight interest in SNL marking shifts in the leftscape. I thought it was Biden that said the line about having the election in the bag until the switcheroo, not Trump. My version is much funnier.

pious agnostic said...

Dana Carvey is a national treasure. No joke, folks!

Colleen Brown said...

Maya Rudolph is good, but she doesn't do Kamala's laugh right . Estee Palti does the best Kamala impression. She's got the laugh down just right. But SNL will never have her on because she is not a Kamala supporter.

Former Illinois resident said...

Gag me with a spoon. That's certainly a sweet depiction of two neophyte politicians' personal incompetency. Harris managed to pick the white guy who was more underwhelming than she is.

Lots of Harris/Walz yard signs in our small Wisconsin city, probably mostly virtue-signaling "I'm a college educated white-collar AWFL". Have yet to meet a local guy who actually supports Harris/Walz ticket, seems mostly the wives. We're experiencing this summer a sudden steep jump in street crimes (car burglaries, bike and garage thefts, "known assailant" shootings and knifings, drug busts and overdoses). This crime spike is likely related to "recently-arriving migrants", as well as the "from Milwaukee" influx ongoing for past decade. Bucolic small town living is getting a blast of urban reality.

Peachy said...

Who watches that horrible pro-Democrat Party propaganda anymore?

Kakistocracy said...

Jim Gaffigan needs to clear his calendar through 2040.

Best JD Vance line:
"Donald told me, JD, you're like a son to me,
cause I don't like you and I'm stuck with you."

William said...

I guess now that Joe Biden is irrelevant, they're allowed to bite down hard. I don't watch SNL. Did they ever mock his age so fiercely before?....Maya Randolph doesn't present a parody of Kamala but, rather, a softer, more appealing version of Kamala. It was reminiscent of the way Greer Garson played Eleanor Roosevelt. If Kamala wins, they'll probably get Halle Berry to play her.

Temujin said...

Welp, I skipped right to Carvey and he was- as he always is- great. That was as good a minute or two of Biden as any I've seen. Then I skipped back to Gaffigan as Walz and...I lasted maybe 30 seconds? I can only imagine how awful 13 minutes of that skit would have been to watch. They just keep going...and going...and going...

Mary Beth said...

I had the captions on. I watch some foreign language videos and just tend to leave them on. It made the video more interesting. When "Doug" said people call him a beta, it displayed as call him a beater.

"We love my rallies except when someone does a bing bong bing bing bing right at me." Nice way to make getting shot at seem trivial.

Michael K said...

Do people still watch SNL? That was a 1980s thing, I thought.

Political Junkie said...

Good seeing Dana and Jim. IMO, the greatest political SNL sketch was their send up of the Clarence Thjomas hearings (SOB Joe was in that one!). Google that one and enjoy. Reagan when the kids came to the White House was also funny, but funny in a way that worked for Reagan.

Ice Nine said...

>Is that racist? It would be considered racist if Trump did it. It's in the black-people-remind-me-of-black-people mode.<

Well, yeah...what should they remind you of - white people?

Political Junkie said...

Temujin - I did the exact same thing. We respect our hostess's opinion. Dana was great and Jim was very solid.

Political Junkie said...

"Not Gahna Doit"

Political Junkie said...

"Wouldn't Be Prudent"

Political Junkie said...

Yes.

MadisonMan said...

Nothing is funny when it's obviously trying so hard.

Dude1394 said...

Sorry, I just cannot in good conscience consume this leftist propaganda. No clicks for you.

stlcdr said...

Is Maya black enough to play Kamala, though?

AndrewV said...

I haven't watched SNL since Dennis Miller left the Weekend Update desk.

Narayanan said...

Carvey/Biden needed to wander off stage in different direction with handlers chasing

planetgeo said...

SNL proves that comedy, like poetry and hand grenades, is a personal thing. Some people get it and like it. Some people don't. And some people just feel all scattered about parts of it.

Wince said...

Did they inadvertently set expectations too high for Walz and too low for Vance before their debate?

The other day Biden called JD Vance "Secretary Vance." As in Cyrus Vance, Secretary of State... under Jimmy Carter.

Narayanan said...

it is interesting that Indian influencers have on Estee Palti do her Kamala impression

Saint Croix said...

It's horrifying to realize that he's still our president. Is it a parody? Or a documentary? If Dana added rage it would be 100%.

Wince said...

Would SNL make fun of attempts against the life of a Democrat candidate for president?

Is that why they are attempting to marginalize Vance with the "bad pick" narrative?

Lazarus said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lazarus said...

Notice the dark and red tint on the Trump scenes. It's like Biden wasn't the one with the dark and creepy Independence Hall speech. Take a listen to Emhoff's "gangsta" talk. It's like Trump wasn't the one assassins have been taking potshots at. Either the Trump impersonator was really, really bad, or anti-Trump humor is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Dana Carvey is always funny, but this wasn't his best work or the best Biden impression. He did look a little like Jerry Ford sometimes (and would have made a better Ford than Chevy Chase). Gaffigan was a little too over the top as Walz, who is ridiculous enough as it is. If they were going to go that much further into absurdity, it's a pity that Chris Farley isn't around to play the role anymore. The Game of Thrones parody, "Blond Dragon People," was sort of funny though, and blessedly apolitical.

loudogblog said...

I thought it was funny that Dana Carvey was having so much fun that he broke character a little at the beginning and started to laugh. (Because he knew what was coming next.) I have to give SNL credit for making an attempt to make fun of both sides instead of just one side. (Even if they didn't pull it off completely.)

JRoberts said...

"Jim Gaffigan needs to clear his calendar through 2040."

Interesting. I watched the whole thing thinking "Most of these people better 'make hay while the sun shines' because there won't be much demand for their impersonations in in about six months."

Leland said...

I just wanted to see Dana Carrey struggle to figure out where to walk off the stage.

rehajm said...

SNL rots old minds…

J Scott said...

Someone should have pointed out that the rebate is 11% at Menards.