This year’s presidential election cycle has been unique because Saturday Night Live really hasn’t been a factor. Some clips have gone viral here and there, some Weekend Update jokes, but really, SNL just hasn’t had the juice with political humor this go-around. If anything, there have been complaints about how SNL has misread the mood. Possibly because (just my opinion) they don’t have very good political comedians or political writers anymore? In any case, I didn’t know if VP Kamala Harris would even make a point of going on SNL this year, even if she only had nice things to say about Maya Rudolph’s impression. But Harris did just that, in a somewhat surprise move. She flew last minute to NYC and did a cute appearance with Maya:
It was cute. I enjoyed it, and Maya looked great. The “Keep Kamala and Carry on-ala” is wonderful. There’s so much space for Kamala Harris to lean into her “cool, fun aunt” brand.
There are already bedwetting Democrats crying about how VP Harris should have been in Michigan rather than on SNL. We’ll find out on Tuesday and Wednesday (I guess?) about whether Harris made the right choice. But this wasn’t some huge detour out of VP Harris’s schedule – she had just come off of a huge rallies in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina earlier in the day, and all of Harris’s surrogates were doing high-profile events across the country all weekend, including Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Tim Walz. VP Harris continued on to Michigan after her brief detour in NYC. It was fine. I suspect it will be just fine. Especially because just hours before VP Harris’s SNL appearance, Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer revealed that Harris is on track to win Iowa. There are so many scenarios in which Harris-Walz gets to 270 in the electoral college, I’m just saying.
Photos courtesy of SNL/NBC and SNL’s IG.