On Saturday, Nov. 2, comedian John Mulaney hosted the fifth episode of “Saturday Night Live”’s 50th season with musical guest Chappell Roan. The episode served as the final live broadcast prior to the 2024 presidential election and featured guest appearances by Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-VA.
The episode’s cold open began with a political open typical of the show’s election year seasons. It kicked off with James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump impersonation, parodying his recent press conference held inside of a garbage truck. He ended the segment by introducing Bowen Yang as running mate JD Vance, before the show cut to Maya Rudolph’s Harris and Andy Samberg’s Doug Emhoff watching a feed of the news broadcast from a dressing room. Towards the end of the sketch, Rudolph sits in front of a mirror, and instead of seeing her own reflection, Harris herself appears on the other side.
Harris and Rudolph exchange politically themed punchlines centered around Harris’s policies and Trump’s campaign moments before encouraging the audience to go out and vote for “us,” subtly endorsing the vice president. The two then end the cold open with the signature line, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night.”
Sen. Kaine was also featured on the episode, appearing in the night’s “What’s That Name?” game show sketch. Kaine introduced himself as Hillary Clinton’s running mate during the 2016 election, asking the audience to identify him, who failed to do so. As a contestant in the sketch, Mulaney’s character says the 2024 election is the most important election in American history, and that “democracy is on the line.”
“SNL” has never shied away from political impressions. Spanning from Chevy Chase as President Gerald Ford to Austin Johnson as Trump, politicians themselves don’t make regular appearances on the show. One of the most recent political appearances was from then-presidential hopeful Nikki Haley, who appeared in the “CNN Town Hall South Carolina Cold Open” on Feb. 3.
There have been several instances of political figures hosting the show, including, most recently, Trump in 2015. Other political hosts include Ralph Nader (1977), George McGovern (1984), Jesse Jackson (1984), Steve Forbes (1996), Rudy Giuliani (1997), John McCain (2002), Al Gore (2002) and Al Sharpton (2003).
This is also not the first time a presidential candidate appeared on “SNL” alongside their impersonator. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, was featured on a March 7, 2020 episode of the show (season 45, episode 15), shortly after dropping out of the 2020 presidential race. Warren was interviewed by Kate McKinnon as Laura Ingraham, and while Warren talks about her campaign, McKinnon changes into her Warren outfit and wig and runs out to thank her for “all that [Warren’s] done in [her] lifetime.”
Hillary Clinton has also appeared on the show alongside McKinnon and Amy Poehler, both of whom impersonated her in 2016 and 2008, respectively. In March 2008, Clinton addressed the audience with Poehler joining in the same outfit. The two shared a similar moment to Harris and Rudolph, in which Clinton asked, “Do I really laugh like that?” Clinton was on the show again in a sketch in October 2015, in which McKinnon portrayed a discouraged Clinton, and Clinton playing an encouraging bartender. These appearances took place many months before Clinton’s elections.
16 years ago, “SNL” featured Sen. (and then-Republican presidential candidate) John McCain just three days before the 2008 presidential election. In the episode (season 34, episode 7), he appeared alongside Tina Fey, who famously impersonated his vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin, in a sketch called “John McCain and Sarah Palin do QVC.” In the sketch, the duo sells a number of items related to McCain’s campaign, including Joe Biden action figures and “McCain’s Fine Gold,” which was shown off mid-sketch by his wife, Cindy McCain.
While Harris’s “SNL” appearance won over its live audience, some believe it violated political fairness. On Saturday, Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expressed his disapproval of Harris’s cameo in a post on X, calling it “a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule.”
“The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct – a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election,” he continued.
NBC has since provided notice that Trump was also offered equal time to Harris’ appearance on SNL by allowing him to address voters during Sunday night’s post-race NASCAR show.
Harris and Kaine may be the most obvious marks this past “SNL” episode, but Saturday’s musical guest has a unique political perspective of her own this election. For her first performance of the night, Chappell Roan performed the anthemic “Pink Pony Club,” which tells the story of a small-town queer person finding joy and refuge at a gay club in Santa Monica.
Despite its 2020 release date, the song enjoyed a near-overnight virality in 2024, catapulting Roan into the pop cultural spotlight at an almost unprecedented pace. Adorned in a frizzy red wig and white dress reminiscent of “Bride of Frankenstein,” Roan delivered a powerful and interactive vocal performance; by the song’s bridge, she turned the microphone to the audience to have them sing along.
A lesbian artist herself, Roan was asked to perform at the White House for Pride in June, but rejected the offer due to her opposition to the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Palestine conflict. In addition, she spoke out against the administration’s (later-rescinded) opposition to gender-affirming surgeries for transgender minors.
Despite this, Roan confirmed she will vote for Harris, but her support is not overly enthusiastic. “Right now, it’s more important than ever to use your vote, and I will do whatever it takes to protect people’s civil rights, especially the LGBTQ+ community,” Roan said in an interview with Rolling Stone in August. “My ethics and values will always align with that, and that hasn’t changed with a different nominee. I feel lucky to be alive during an incredibly historical time period when a woman of color is a presidential nominee.”
Asha Baron can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @ashajbaron. Gustavo Atencio Flores can be reached at [email protected]. Nathan Legare can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @Legare_Nathan.
