I used to beg to get picked up early from sleepovers as a child so that I wouldn’t miss the 11:30 p.m. start time of Saturday Night Live, and while my enthusiasm for the late-night variety show (which is about to get the Hollywood biopic treatment) has waned over time—arguably in a way that demonstrates some healthy emotional growth—I’m still pretty invested in what goes on over at Studio 8H of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. That’s why, when I heard that SNL alum Maya Rudolph would be reprising her role as Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on the coming 50th season, I inwardly cheered. Even when electoral politics start to feel capital-T Tiresome, I know I’ll never get sick of watching a really good celebrity impression.
Rudolph has been playing Harris on SNL since 2019, but—much like a Sarah Palin-attired Tina Fey before her—she seems to be finding the public pressure to reprise her role somewhat irresistible. “I would never have believed you if you said, ‘Hey, one day you’re going to be playing the presidential candidate,’” Rudolph said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday. “For me to think that I have anything to do with this by association is mindblowing. I spent so many years on SNL watching other people play presidential candidates and thinking, you know, there’s no one that resembles me in the race. To think that we’re here now, and to think that I would ever be close by association is so incredible.”
All corniness aside, the nerdy, comedy-loving little girl who still lives inside of me wouldn’t have been able to believe her luck at seeing a Black female comedian portray a Black, female presidential candidate (!) anywhere, much less within the famously white-boys’-clubby world of late-night TV. Obviously, there’s only so much that even Rudolph can to to make the current state of the world LOL-worthy, but here’s hoping her upcoming Harris impressions will at least bring a little glimmer of political enthusiasm to Saturday nights.
