If it felt somewhat inevitable that the real-life Kamala Harris would eventually respond to Maya Rudolph’s impression of her on Saturday Night Live by appearing on the show herself, the audience in Studio 8H was still evidently delighted when the vice president and 2024 Democratic candidate dropped by SNL this Saturday to appear with Rudolph in the cold open.
“I wish I could talk to someone who was in my shoes,” Rudolph-as-Harris lamented, wishing out loud that there were “a Black, South Asian woman running for president” to advise her ahead of Election Day. Then, as she peered wistfully into a mirror, there, peering out the other side, was the real Harris, dressed in her own black blazer, dark top, and string of pearls. She greeted her double with a: “You and me both, sister.”
“I don’t really laugh like that, do I?” Harris later asked, good-humoredly, before she and Rudolph launched into a mutual pump-up speech about the election. Then, the two took the stage side by side. “I’m voting for us,” Rudolph-as-Harris told the actual vice president, before they shouted the show’s signature “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” tagline directly into the camera. (In addition to Harris’s cameo, SNL alum Andy Samberg also reprised his role as Harris’s besotted husband, Doug Emhoff, in the sketch; Dana Carvey, Jim Gaffigan, and James Austin Johnson were back to play President Joe Biden, Gov. Tim Walz, and Donald Trump, respectively; and current cast member Bowen Yang once again transformed into J.D. Vance.)
The final episode of Saturday Night Live before the presidential election on November 5 was likely to generate headlines even before Harris’s drop-by, what with former SNL writer John Mulaney aboard as host. (Both he and musical guest Chappell Roan have a way of inspiring very weird discourse.) Ultimately, though, even a very brief appearance made Harris the main event.
