The Oct. 5 episode of “Saturday Night Live” began with a political cold open mocking this week’s vice presidential debate.

The sketch opens with Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) and her husband Doug Emhoff (Andy Samberg) watching the debate from home. With Norah O’Donnell (Heidi Gardner) and Margaret Brennan (Chloe Fineman) moderating, Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan) and Jd Vance (Bowen Yang) take mild swipes at each other during the debate.

Vance spoke to his awkwardness, beginning his opening statement with, “I want to begin with something that will appeal to women voters: I understand both moderators tonight are mothers, and I like that.”

Meanwhile, Walz evoked his teaching past, saying at the podium, “I gotta grade these papers … I gotta stack of midterms.” He later evoked his biggest blunder of the evening, saying, “I’ve become friends with school shooters.”

The sketch then shifted to the faux-emotional, parodying the candidates’ inclination...