In a skit that was quite funny and a dramatic sea change for generally woke and unfunny “Saturday Night Live,” a side-splittingly funny performance by otherwise left-leaning comedian Jim Gaffigan parodied Minnesota Governor and 2024 Kamala Harris running mate Tim Walz, showing him to be the awkward and weird buffoon that many on the right and even some on the left think he really is.
Making the skit all the funnier was that, unlike past skits that generally shy away from really mocking the Democrats, something that the left-leaning media has generally tended to do in this election cycle as well, this one from SNL really hit the mark and captured the weird antics and mannerisms of Gov. Walz, turning him into a punchline.
In the skit, Gaffigan, playing Gov. Walz being a weirdo during the debate, said, “I haven’t been this excited since I got a 10 percent rebate on a leaf blower from Menards.” Continuing, Gaffigan said, being awkward, “In Minnesota, we have a saying. Mind your own damn business. We also have another saying in Minnesota. My nuts froze to the park bench.”
In another part of the debate skit, Gov. Walz was asked how he would solve the recurrent and currently raging conflict in the Middle East and, in an incoherent response, said, “I don’t know the answer, so I’m going to just say the word ‘fundamental’ a bunch, because debating is 30 percent ‘fun’ and 70 percent ‘da-mental.’ How am I doing?”
The skit, as the debate progresses, then cuts to Kamala Harris and her husband, Dough Emhoff, sitting around and saying Walz will do a good job and keep it in check. Emhoff, saying as much, said, “Tim will be fine. It’s not like he’s gonna say something crazy.” The skit then cuts to Walz in the debate, saying, “I’ve become friends with school shooters!” Harris then snaps a wine glass in her hand as he makes the remark.
In another portion of the skit centering around the debate, Walz is asked why he lied about being in China for the Tiananmen Square protest and crackdown when really he was at home, something that actually happened in the debate. Walz, responding in the skit, said, “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. But I’m sure this guy has some, some things he’d want to, you know, back out of, as well.” Watch part of the skit here:
As background, Gov. Walz said, during the debate, that he is “friends with school shooters” when he was trying to talk about the tragedies that are school shootings, saying, “I sat in that office with those Sandy Hook parents. I’ve become friends with school shooters. I’ve seen it.” Clarifying the remarks after the fact, he said, “I was talking about meeting people where there are school shooters, and I need to be more specific on that. But I am passionate about this. This one, for my wife and I, is just, as teachers, as parents, is so personal.” He also called himself a “knucklehead” when asked about the China trip issue.
Commenting on the importance of the SNL skit, one commenter on X said, “You know things are bad for the Harris/Walz campaign when SNL is mocking them.” Replying, another wrote, “Democrats have been (almost completely) off limits to comedians for years now, for the state run media to allow them to make fun of currently running presidential candidate seems very significant to me.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
