'SNL' Taps A-List Stand-Up Comedian To Play Tim Walz Alongside Maya Rudloph's Kamala Harris

Live from New York, it’s a Saturday Night Live reunion! The historic fiftieth season of the iconic NBC sketch-comedy series kicked off last night, Sept. 28, and the ABC News-themed cold open unsurprisingly was focused on the 2024 presidential race, with several surprise guests popping up in the episode’s early minutes to play key political figures in the ongoing campaign.

While viewers were no doubt expecting to see one of the show’s brightest stars, Maya Rudolph, return to Studio 8H to uncannily portray Vice President and POTUS hopeful Kamala Harris, the comedienne was joined by some equally iconic SNL alums. After stand-up great Jim Gaffigan turned up as Harris’s running mate Tim Walz, with BDE — that’s “Big Dad Energy,” of course — aplenty (“I haven’t been this excited since I got a 10-percent rebate on a leaf blower!”), the Second Gentleman of the United States Doug Emhoff came out to proudly support his wife’s Oval Office dreams, played by none other than Andy Samberg.

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The Lonely Island funnyman hilariously played up Emhoff’s “wife guy” public persona (“I feel like I’m in one of those movies where Seth Rogen dates Charlize Theron—how did I get this woman!”) before the ABC News producers “switched” over to a Donald Trump rally, which saw current SNL cast member James Austin Johnson reprise his spot-on impersonation of the 45th president and co-star Bowen Yang premiere his take on Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.

Related: The ‘Saturday Night Live’ Season 1 Cast: Where Are They Now?

And a political cold open wouldn’t be complete without a little J’ Biden, as Kamala calls him: enter SNL legend Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden, who spent most of his screen time mumbling (“Guess what? And by the way!”) and meandering.

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It’s not surprising that Lorne Michaels and the rest of the powers that be would want to trot out some of Saturday Night Live’s biggest stars in celebration of its big 5-0. We’re sure there’s plenty more of that to come this season!

Related: ‘SNL’ Reveals First Five Hosts and Musical Guests for Season 50