In the final Saturday Night Live episode before the election, Studio 8H welcomed the politician whom Maya Rudolph has been playing for weeks: Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. And that wasn’t the only surprise the sketch-comedy show had in store on Saturday, November 2. Here are the highlights from that episode:
Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris gets a pep talk from the real deal
Saturday night’s cold open featured the usual suspects in their usual election-season roles: Joining Rudolph’s Harris were Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff, Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz, Dana Carvey as Joe Biden, James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump, Bowen Yang as JD Vance, and Chloe Fineman as Kaitlan Collins.
But then Rudolph’s Harris sits down at a mirror and sees herself — that is, the real Kamala Harris, making her SNL debut. The real Harris says the American people want to “end the drama-la.”
“With a cool new stepmom-ala,” adds Rudolph’s Harris, “to kick back in our pajama-las, and watch a rom-com-ala.”
Pete Davidson and Andy Samberg make a Duane Reade musical
Davidson made a surprise appearance on Saturday night, playing a traveler who stumbles into a Broadway-influenced Port Authority Duane Reade store in the latest of SNL host John Mulaney‘s New York City-themed musical sketches.
Kenan Thompson and Ego Nwodim play milk-offering possums in a Lion King spoof. Marcello Hernández sings “Do-Re-Mi” as a shampoo bottle under lock and key. Yang riffs on Les Misérables as an escaped-felon Greyhound driver. Fineman references the real-life Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest with a Cabaret performance. Devon Walker plays Mayor Eric Adams, a.k.a. “Prince of Turkey,” in an Aladdin number. And then Samberg drops in to sing a Hamilton-esque song as the bear carcass Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropped off in Central Park.
NASA brings Beppo home
In an Apollo 13-like short film in Saturday’s episode, Mulaney plays a NASA director overseeing an Earth-orbiting mission manned by a chimp named Beppo. But the mission goes awry, and Mulaney’s Jim has to break the news to Beppo in language the chimp would understand. “Beppo no go home,” Jim says. “Beppo go dark. Beppo equals zero forever.”
But Nwodim’s character, a nod to the mathematicians of Hidden Figures, has an idea to bring Beppo home — one that, against explosively bad odds, succeeds.
Reba McEntire tries to endorse a presidential candidate
During the “Weekend Update” segment, Heidi Gardner played a Reba McEntire ready to make a presidential endorsement. Well, kind of ready. She’s too busy telling stories from her upbringing in McAlester, Oklahoma, to actually come down on one side of the presidential race or the other. “Why can’t they both be president?” she says. “Like our milk in McAlester: creamy and crunchy.”
Chappell Roan makes her SNL debut with a song debut
Not only did musical guest Chappell Roan perform her hit “Pink Pony Club” during her SNL debut in Saturday’s episode, but the pop star also debuted a new song titled “The Giver.”
Unfortunately for fans, video of the performance is now private on YouTube, but you can hear the queer country anthem in the clip below. “All you country boys saying you know how to treat a woman right?” Roan says in a spoken-word portion of the song. “Well, only a woman knows how to treat a woman right. She gets the job done.”
Saturday Night Live, Saturdays, 11:30/10:30c, NBC
