'SNL' spoofs the VP debate in its cold open

The 6000th post on this blog, as I promised yesterday, is a highlights post of tonight's Saturday Night Live beginning with the VP Debate 2024 Cold Open.

Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) and Doug Emhoff (Andy Samberg) watch the vice presidential debate between JD Vance (Bowen Yang) and Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan).

Also Dana Carvey as Joe Biden, who stole the skit, Heidi Gardner as Norah O'Donnell, and Chloe Fineman as Margaret Brennan. They gave the vice presidential debate exactly what it deserved, a good razzing. "Honey, we have the soundbite!" Yes, Tim Walz got JD Vance to give "a damning non-answer." Vance has bought the Big Lie.

Weekend Update: Trump Scrolled Twitter During Jan 6 concentrated on other news, including funnier findings from Jack Smith's filing.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like it being released that Trump was scrolling Twitter during January 6, Elon Musk attending a Trump rally and Trump not wanting to release his medical records.

I can tell SNL's writers regret missing out on RFK Jr. this summer when his shenanagans were fresh and took this opportunity to make fun of him before it was way too late. His candidacy has already turned into a pumpkin just in time for Spooky Season, but will rot in November, just like all the other jack-o'-lanterns.

The news about Diddy and Daniel Day Lewis was enough to qualify this post as the Sunday entertainment feature, but I couldn't resist including Weekend Update: Jane Wickline to introduce a new cast member playing and singing about parties, just not the political ones.

Jane Wickline stops by Weekend Update to perform a song about Gen Z partying.

Now I'm wondering if this song is eligible for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics at next year's Emmy Awards. I'll have to wait until July to find out!

Follow over the jump for a classic skit and its sequel.

First, the already classic Washington's Dream from the last time Nate Bargatze hosted.

George Washington (Nate Bargatze) tells his soldiers (Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, Bowen Yang, James Austin Johnson) his dream for the country.

First, I'm recycling my response to the Beavis and Butt-Head sketch from 'SNL' returns with Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris after winning six Emmy Awards.

HAHAHAHA! I have the same reaction to this sketch that I had to watching David S. Pumpkins for the first time: "I can see why it's [already] a classic and I can't believe it took me until now to watch this."

Second, I'm recycling the story I tell my students from Discovery News and I rant in favor of the metric system: "'There are only three groups of students in community college who understand the metric system, the science nerds, the foreign students, and the drug dealers.' That never fails to get a laugh." SNL's writers got even more laughs from the same premise.

Now for the sequel from last night's episode, Washington's Dream 2.

George Washington (Nate Bargatze) tells his soldiers (Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, Bowen Yang, James Austin Johnson) more of his dreams for the country.

While some of the irrationalities in our vocabulary go back to the Norman Conquest, with the Anglo-Saxon name for the animal and the French name for its meat, most of the rest serve as examples of the quip I quoted in Verge Science and Depeche Mode on the Insect Apocalypse, "the U.S. and the U.K., two countries divided by a common language." Speaking of which, I should probably share a video from Lost in the Pond here, like I finally did for In Deep Geek and NativLang, but probably until after I reach my page view goal for October, unless it interferes with my observation of Halloween. Priorities.