Saturday Night Live kicked off its 50th season with a lengthy cold opening sketch with three former cast members returning to do what the show has always done best: skewer politicians.
The sketch perfectly satirizes the glaring difference between the Harris/Walz and Trump/Vance rallies, with the writers only needing to use the candidates' own words to land the punchlines.
Fan favorite Maya Rudolph is back to play Vice President Kamala Harris, with SNL legend Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden and former cast member Andy Samberg playing Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
The audience roared as Rudolph walked on stage to the Beyonce song, “Freedom.” She captured the Vice President's voice and cadence perfectly, saying, “Well, well, well, look who fell out of that coconut tree! Your fun aunt has returned!"
Casting outside their deep talent pool, SNL pegged comedian/actor Jim Gaffigan to play Gov. Tim Walz, and he nailed it. Bounding energetically onto the stage, Gaffigan declared, “I haven’t been this excited since I got a 10 percent rebate on a leaf blower for Menards.” Gaffigan then joked, “What can I say, I got that B.D.E…. Big Dad Energy! You see what I did there?”
Samberg joined the skit after that as Doug "Dougie Fresh" Emhoff, greeting Rudolph with an affectionate canoodle.
Quick sidebar: I've been using "GentleMensch" in tweets about Doug for AGES and I think SNL should kick down a little scratch my way.
Dana Carvey's Joe Biden was so spot-on that everyone agreed he should've been playing him all along.
James Austin Johnson and Bowen Yang were also perfect as Trump and Vance.
Watch the entire sketch, below.