‘SNL’ sketch brings Democrats and Republicans together for ‘Family Feud’

(CNN) — With less than a month to go until the presidential election, “Saturday Night Live” pit Democrats against Republicans in a “Family Feud” sketch on its latest episode.

Decidedly tamer than some of its politically themed sketches and jokes in recent weeks, the game show setup provided a fine platform to showcase “SNL’s” election ensemble – Maya Rudolph as Vice President Kamala Harris, Andy Samberg as Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, Jim Gaffigan as Harris’ running mate Gov. Tim Walz, Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden, James Austin Johnson as former President Donald Trump, Bowen Yang as Sen. JD Vance and Mikey Day as Donald Trump Jr.

Kenan Thompson’s Steve Harvey presided over the game and asked contestants to name things found in a glove compartment. Rudolph’s Harris and Samberg’s Emhoff were quick to get the top two answers on the board, answering “gun” and “second gun,” respectively.

Arguably the most hilarious answer was Gaffigan’s, who answered as Walz: “Hot Hands, napkins from Runza and gotta have Tums in case I eat something spicy like tomato.”

Johnson’s Trump also got a laugh from the audience, joking at one point: “I say lots of different things but it all comes together so beautifully, like an episode of ‘Seinfeld.’”

The sketch marked the third “SNL” cold open in a row that was dedicated to politics, with somewhat diminishing returns in terms of humor. But “SNL” boss Lorne Michaels had been open about the show’s political plans prior to the start of the season, now three episodes deep.

“You can’t lecture the audience, which most of politics is now, people lecturing the audience. Ours is like, ‘Yeah, there are kind of idiots on both sides,’” Michaels said last month. “It has to be comedy. We’re first and foremost a comedy show.”

Ariana Grande returned as host for Saturday’s new episode, with musical guest Stevie Nicks.

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