Acting overly excitable in a suit from Costco, comedian Jim Gaffigan poked fun at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s Midwestern-dad sensibilities on the season premiere of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” last weekend.
“Folks, I haven’t been this excited since I got a 10% rebate on a leaf blower from Menards,” Gaffigan said during the opening sketch. (Yes, it’s actually 11%, as every Midwestern viewer probably shouted at their TV.) “What can I say? I’ve got that BDE: Big dad energy.”
In the sketch, which has racked up nearly 7 million views on YouTube as of Monday evening, Gaffigan impersonated Walz as the Democratic vice presidential nominee alongside former “SNL” cast member Maya Rudolph as Walz’s running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris; former cast member Andy Samberg as her husband, Doug Emhoff; and “SNL” legend Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, current cast members James Austin Johnson returned as former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, while Bowen Yang took on the role of JD Vance, his running mate.
The question of who would play Walz on “SNL” was the subject of much speculation; comedian Steve Martin was an early fan-favorite choice but evidently declined the role. Gaffigan has performed in Minnesota many times, including recent Minnesota State Fair Grandstand appearances in 2017 and 2022.
And in fact, Walz and Gaffigan have quite a bit in common.
1. Both men have similar upbringings
Walz and Gaffigan each have origins in relatively large Midwestern families. The governor, born in 1964, grew up in rural north-central Nebraska with three siblings. The comedian, born in 1966, was raised in Chesterton, Ind., with five other siblings.
2. Both were inspired to follow their fathers’ careers — but changed courses before rising to prominence
At 17, Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard; after college, he became a public school teacher and coach, first in Nebraska and then in Minnesota. Walz joined the National Guard on the encouragement of his father, who had served during the Korean War and also spent his career working in the public education system, he said in a Facebook post.
Following in the footsteps of his own father, a banker, Gaffigan earned a college degree in finance (“hated it,” he told CBS) and got a job as a litigation consultant (“was horrible at it,” he said in the same interview). Later, when he moved to New York City and began pursuing comedy at night, he worked as an advertising account manager — a job from which, as he joked to NPR, he had to be woken up at his desk to be fired.
3. Both were once football players
Before Walz led high school football teams as “Coach Walz” — a nickname that made it into this weekend’s “SNL” skit — he ran high school track and played basketball and football. He was originally a wide receiver but played defensive lineman his senior year after bulking up from summer National Guard training.
Gaffigan also played football at both high school and …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
