For its parody of the 2024 vice presidential debate, Saturday Night Live framed its cold open around Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) and Doug Emhoff (Andy Samberg) watching the event in confusion from their living room. Although both had high hopes for Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan), they’re immediately concerned by him being a little too nice to his opponent.
“Wow, this guy’s good. He’s got an answer for everything,” Walz says about JD Vance (Bowen Yang) at one point. Vance smiles and earnestly replies, “Thank you. That’s quite kind.”
Later, the sketch mocked Walz’s debate flub about him claiming to have been in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
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Gaffigan’s Walz answered, “So I think what happened is, I went to Epcot. You can go around the whole world and I had a couple in the Germany section, and I thought I went to China. Anyway, I’m a knucklehead.” He pointed to Vance and added, “But I’m sure this guy has some things he’d want to, you know, back out of as well.”
“He’s right about that,” Yang’s Vance answered warmly. “That’s an area where we have a lot of common ground.”
“Why are they friends!?” Harris asked. “Why are they vibing!?”
The Harris family was soon joined by a confused, rambling Joe Biden, once again played by Dana Carvey, who watched along with them as Walz finally got a win.
“You know what? There’s 10 seconds on the clock here, and I’ve got to get some points on the board here, so I’m just going to chuck a Hail Mary.” Walz turned to Vance and asked, “Senator, will you admit that Donald Trump lost the election?”
Reenacting the infamous moment from the debate, Yang’s Vance answered, “You know, Tim, I’m focused on the future.”
Back at home, Emhoff excitedly told Harris, “Honey, we did it. We got the sound bite! What do the pollsters say?”
Harris checked her phone and answered, “Well, this is a huge victory: it made no difference!”
