‘VP Debate Spoof: SNL Sparks JD Vance and Tim Walz Bromance’

It wouldn’t be a proper debate if Saturday Night Live didn’t skewer it.

Days after Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz shared the stage for their vice presidential face-off, SNL brought back its election-cycle impersonators to poke fun at their performances. The twist? While Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris watches on in horror, Walz (Jim Gaffigan) and Vance (Bowen Yang) come dangerously close to forming a bromance. 

The spark comes after the duo deliver their opening statements and Yang’s Vance expertly dodges a series of questions — leading to an unexpected compliment from Gaffigan’s Walz.

“Wow, this guy’s good,” Gaffigan as Walz observes in the parody. “He’s got an answer for everything!”

Caught off guard, Yang’s Vance replies warmly, “Thank you. That’s quite kind.”

As fake Vance and fake Walz exchange smiles, moderator Norah O’Donnell (Heidi Gardner) appears uncomfortable. “I’m not sure why you two are connecting,” she says, “but let’s move on.”

Later, the VP nominees double down on their bonding when the sketch moves on to mocking Walz’s memorable debate flub, in which he awkwardly addressed his claim that he was in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

“So I think what happened is, I went to Epcot,” Gaffigan’s Walz explains. “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 then points to Vance and says, “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 answers earnestly. Then, in sync, they add, “That’s an area where we have a lot of common ground.”

Locking eyes, SNL’s Vance and Walz slowly lift their hands to touch across the split screen.

Meanwhile, at home, Rudolph’s Kamala is understandably distressed watching this play out as she sits with her husband, Doug Emhoff (Andy Samberg). After a dramatic wine spit take, she complains, “Why are they friends!? Why are they vibing!?”

But in the end — after an interruption from Dana Carvey playing a confused, rambling, ice-cream-obsessed President Joe Biden — Harris celebrates a win. With the debate winding down, Walz asks Vance to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, to which he refuses to give a straight answer.

“Honey, we did it,” says Samberg as Emhoff. “We got the sound bite. What are the pollsters saying?”

“This is a huge victory,” Rudolph replies. “It made no difference!”

Watch SNL spoof the debate in the clip above.

FAQs

Q: What was the highlight of the SNL sketch?

A: The highlight was the unexpected bromance forming between the impersonators of JD Vance and Tim Walz.

Q: Who played the roles of JD Vance and Tim Walz in the SNL sketch?

A: Bowen Yang played JD Vance, while Jim Gaffigan portrayed Tim Walz in the SNL sketch.

Q: Why was Kamala Harris distressed during the sketch?

A: Kamala Harris was distressed as she witnessed Vance and Walz forming a close bond, much to her dismay.

Credit: ew.com