I’ve been waking up on Sunday morning to watch a streaming (or, back in the day, TiVoed) episode of last night’s Saturday Night Live since I was in middle school. It’s a ritual I’ve come to depend on, even when the episode in question is a little lighter on laughs than one might hope for. Last night’s 50th-anniversary episode of the late-night show, though, delivered on almost all fronts; sure, there were occasional flat moments–please, God, let “brat summer” jokes fade gracefully away now that it’s officially fall–but with the 2024 presidential election just weeks away, it’s nice to see the SNL cast’s familiar faces and actually be able to laugh a bit about the hellscape that is American politics right now.
Below, find the 5 best moments from the first episode of SNL Season 50:
Maya Rudolph reprising her role as Kamala Harris
Do coconut-tree jokes feel a little stale at this point? Yes. But honestly, Maya Rudolph could roll in reciting a ‘90s-era SNL punchline like “Schweddy Balls” and I’d still be thrilled to see her. Plus, Jim Gaffigan as Harris’s running mate Tim Walz was weirdly perfect, as was Bowen Yang’s take on J.D. Vance; Andy Samberg’s Doug Emhoff wasn’t quite as dead-on, but again, Andy Samberg doing anything is inherently funny to me, so I can forgive it.
