‘SNL’ Returns With Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris and an Ace Lineup of Election Impressions

We’ve known since July 21 that Maya Rudolph would return to Saturday Night Live this year to play Kamala Harris. However unnerving this political season might get—these 36 remaining days of nail-biting hell—we could at least be able to count on her to deliver. Indeed, the 50th season premiere of SNL cut right to the chase, beginning with the welcome sight of Rudolph’s silk press and flag lapel pin. “I’m going to protect your Va-Georgia,” her Harris promised a rally audience. “We can end the dramala. End the traumala. And go relax in our pajamalas.”

Rudolph’s impression is more than just sexy and cheering. She’s perfected Harris’s voice, her dips and rises and valleys of speaking. She’s got the laugh that’s equal parts joy and performance. And she’s got the candidate’s flex of placing her chin on top of her hand, the squinting amusement that belies incredulity. Rudolph will win an Emmy for this role, and maybe by mid-November we’ll see her and her muse on stage together.

But even though we knew to expect Rudolph, other questions remained: who would surround her Harris on the cold open stage? There’d been talk of Steve Martin taking on the role of vice-presidential pick Tim Walz, but his name seemed bandied about for his white hair and chapped pale skin alone. Jim Gaffigan—who, for the record, made our shortlist—was the far better get. He’s in honest possession of Walz’s unpaved Midwestern appeal. “This suit is from Costco,” Gaffigan, as the nominee in Saturday’s season premiere episode, bragged. “It’s a Kirkland brand. They make good dog food.” Andy Samberg also entered the scene as a great Doug Emhoff, playing “the second gentlemensch” like he was a glass or two of a great red wine into the evening and looking to keep the party going. “I can’t wait to decorate the White House for Christmas,” he said. “The theme will be ‘Hanukkah.’”

Dana Carvey returned to SNL for the first time in nearly 10 years, giving us the show’s first truly great impression of President Joe Biden. In the past, Jim Carrey brought too much manic energy to the part, while Jason Sudeikis was too robust of a salesman; Woody Harrelson was too enamored by his giant white false teeth; and John Mulaney spoke too fast and crisply. Enter, finally, Carvey, who gave a devastating impression of the 46th president humbly dissipating back into Delaware beach dust. “And guess what, by the way,” his Biden said, stopping and starting at the podium. “The fact of the matter is, and this is no joke…”

James Austin Johnson returned as Donald Trump, predictably shouting about Haitians eating cats and dogs and forcing them to attend Diddy’s freak-offs. But it was SNL’s decision to tap Bowen Yang as Trump’s vice-presidential pick, J.D. Vance, that will likely drive their campaign crazy. Being played by a gay Asian who likely knows his way around an eyeliner should eat those weirdos up. And it nicely sets up a future cold open between Gaffigan’s Dog Lover and Yang’s Cat Hater post next week’s VP debate.

Yang, the night’s MVP alongside Rudolph, would play another baby hippo later in the evening. During Weekend Update, Yang stuffed himself into a shimmery rubber suit and flapped his little hooves to bemoan the travails of Moo Deng. Playing the most famous 10-week-old zoo animal in the world, Yang delivered a near verbatim version of Chappell Roan’s monologue of depression and frustration. It was pointed without being nasty. My 16-year-old Chappell Roan fan and I rewound the scene of Yang’s hippo demanding “Hose!” and biting at the water spray more than a few times. Hang in there, young stars. You deserve better than whatever versions of shellfish and bananas are being slung at you in this wild moment of stratospheric attention.

No matter who the host of the premiere was, she was bound to be overshadowed by the onslaught of the summer’s insane headlines. And so it was with emcee Jean Smart, who cut an elegant and snappy figure throughout the episode if not a particularly memorable one. Her monologue began with a couple of ba dum tss a la her Hacks character, Deborah Vance—jokes that are more stylish lines meant to be chortled over expensive martinis—before switching quickly into a tenderly delivered rendition of Judy Garland’s “I Happen to Like New York.” Speaking of tender: how could we not cheer at the sight of her Hacks co-star (and daughter of original SNL star Laraine Newman) Hannah Einbinder standing lovingly at her side as Smart introducer musical guest Jellyroll’s first performance?

No, this was a premiere that had to hit the most absurd and inescapable beats of the last couple of months: Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” the Turkish shooter at the Olympics, the chimp from Chimp Crazy, the downfall of Diddy, the indictment of New York’s Mayor Eric Adams, the disgrace of North Carolina’s Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, Hoda Kotb stepping down from the Today show, Trump on Mars, Charli XCX as a cultural thought leader.

For all its pinballing around recent events, SNL decided to end with a sketch of sudsy goodness. Smart played one of the Real Housewives of Santa Fe as the women took their feuding to the Rancho Mexicano cantina. They took turns swiping at the legitimacy of one another’s egopreneurial endeavors. “So now Candles by Brie is not a business?!” “Tell me how Hats by Yvonne is not a business?!” “So now for-profit prisons are not a business?!” It’s good to laugh.

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