The Oct. 5 episode of “Saturday Night Live” began with a political cold open mocking this week’s vice presidential debate. Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) and her husband Doug Emhoff (Andy Samberg) watching the debate from home.

Live brought back almost all of the 2024 election principals for its cold open, in a spoof of this week’s vice presidential debate between JD Vance (Bowen Yang) and Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan). The riffs were on the most memorable moments from an otherwise inconsequential 90 minute debate,

Walz debate showed a return to civility on the political stage, as rare as that has become. This type of civility will be crucial for the next vice president.