If you’re going to impersonate Reba McEntire, you better do it right.
Saturday Night Live had their big “Pre-Election” show, and made sure to bring out all of the big guns. Jim Gaffigan was there to play Tim Walz, SNL legend Dana Carvey did his Joe Biden, Andy Samberg portrayed Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, and Maya Rudolph once again provided an uncanny Kamala Harris impersonation.
And this time around, Rudolph did her Kamala right in front of the real Kamala, who stopped by the long-running comedy show for one last push before Election Day next week.
Kamala Harris talks to Kamala Harris pic.twitter.com/AJuW7aO7VM
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) November 3, 2024
All of those characters were expected to be included in the show, which ultimately leaned very heavily into politics – as SNL has been known to do. But one impersonation that no one saw coming was an “appearance” by everyone’s favorite red-headed queen of country music during Saturday Night Live’s famous “Weekend Update” segment.
Heidi Gardner, who has been an official cast member since 2019, debuted her impersonation of country music legend Reba McEntire during the portion of the show hosted by Colin Jost and Michael Che. They worked the Reba portrayal in by saying that a number of celebrities had “come out of the woodwork” to endorse the candidate of their choice, and McEntire had stopped by to do the same.
To her credit, Gardner nailed the look (big red hair and sleek clothing), and even had Reba’s cadence down a bit. But the rest of the impersonation could be described as bizarre, and obviously poked fun at Reba’s country roots. When Jost asked “Reba” who she was going to vote for, Gardner’s impersonation of the country legend responded with:
“I come from a little town called McAlester, Oklahoma. We don’t make up our minds quickly. In fact, we’ve got a saying: If you think the milk is spoiled, give it another sip.”
Ok…
As the conversation continued around Reba’s potential endorsement, Jost straight-up asked who she would be voting for. The cue-cards directed Gardner’s impersonation of the “Fancy” singer to go back to the well of jokes that is Oklahoma milk:
“Why can’t they both be president? Like our milk in McAlester: creamy and crunchy.”
There were a lot of “bad dairy in McAlester, Oklahoma” jokes, if you are following along so far.
Considering that Reba is currently very involved with NBC – both as a current judge on The Voice and the star of her new sitcom Happy’s Place – I wonder if Reba will be a fan of this SNL portrayal. She’s famously one of the nicest people on the planet, so there’s a chance McEntire just laughs it off.
Maybe she thought this last milk joke was worthy of a chuckle:
“It’s like we say in Oklahoma when people ask if we drink our milk with a fork: Yes.”
Reba has never had the reputation of being a moron so not quite sure where they were trying to go with this one. From the impersonation, to the wig, to the actual writing… just all-around bad. Maybe it’s just me, and maybe it’s just the really poor execution, but it sounds an awful lot like the crux of this message was just “small town people are stupid.” I guess coastal elitism is passing for comedy these days…
You can view the Reba impersonation for yourself at the link below:
Reba McEntire stops by the desk to share her thoughts on the election pic.twitter.com/fxWNoODTR1
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) November 3, 2024
