During this weekend’s episode of “Saturday Night Live,” NBC’s long-running sketch comedy program, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem got an acceptance during the show’s cold opening.
Actress Heidi Gardner played Noem as a vampire while visiting former President Donald Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
“Hello, I’m Governor Kristi Noem and ‘I want to take over your abortion rights’,” in an accent that doesn’t match any film in Transylvania.
To which the fake hosts asked, “What the hell was that? The governor of South Dakota.
Noem’s character continued, “I also wanted to say a happy early Columbus Day, sir.” This is a clear nod to next week’s national holiday, which South Dakota is celebrating as Native American Day.
Funny or not is subjective, but it’s rare to find a South Dakota politician on this national comedy stage. Even factoring in the non-political events, Mount Rushmore State has little history with the show.
Here are the notable South Dakota appearances on “SNL” over the years. And let us know if we’ve missed anything!
Table of Contents
Chris Katan played then-South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle in a skit about tax cuts in 2001
Former South Dakota Senator George McGovern hosted the show in 1984, 12 years after his failed presidential bid
Senator John Thune was gored on the show’s “Weekend Update” segment for commenting on a minimum wage law in 2001
In 2009, Sioux Falls native and then “Mad Men” star January Jones hosted the show
In 2014, the show featured a “commercial” for a waterbed store in South Dakota. They say “waterbeds are the best”
In 1979, America’s “first gay couple to attend high school prom” happened in Sioux Falls and ended up on “Weekend Update.”
It was May 23, 1979, and newspapers across the country ran an Associated Press story about the first gay couple to attend a high school prom.
The headlines ranged from jubilation to blame. Some newspapers ran the whole story, while others condensed it into just a few paragraphs. But every story began the same way — the Dateline, which told readers across the country that in a town called Sioux Falls, 17-year-old Randy Rohl and 20-year-old Grady Quinn took a small but significant step in LGBTQ had made history.
The event continued to be national news — to the point where it resulted in Sioux Falls being arguably the only mention on “Saturday Night Live,” with Bill Murray making a lewd joke about the situation during the weekend update.
Did we miss something? Email to [email protected]