The most pressing question about Tim Walz and JD Vance: Who should play them on SNL?

Now that Tim Walz has been named the Democratic candidate for vice president, it’s time to tackle the most pressing question left in media and politics: Who will play the earnest ex-schoolteacher-turned-governor-turned-dad jokes magnet on Saturday Night Live?

One favorite has already dropped out: comic actor Steve Martin told The Los Angeles Times he turned down an offer from SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels to play the Minnesota governor, a fellow balding, white-haired guy with a wide smile.

“I said, ‘Lorne, I’m not an impressionist,’” Martin told Times columnist Glenn Whipp. “You need someone who can really nail the guy.’ I was picked because I have gray hair and glasses.”

Fans had been circulating pictures of Martin online with SNL alum Maya Rudolph, adding to buzz she may reprise playing Vice President Harris – this time as the Democratic presidential nominee – when the show returns to new episodes this fall.

Why this discussion matters

Excitement over Martin reminded me of the moment Sarah Palin was named a vice presidential candidate in 2008, prompting loads of comedy nerds to send around emails noting how much Palin looked like another SNL alum, Tina Fey.

Fey’s impression of Palin eventually dominated pop culture so much, people believed the politician — then Alaska’s governor — really said, “I can see Russia from my house,” a line that Fey actually dropped during SNL’s season premiere in September 2008.

Images of Gerald Ford as a clumsy doofus, George H.W. Bush as a patrician so stiff his words sounded like gibberish, and Al Gore as a stuffy know-it-all obsessed with the word “lockbox,” all come from devastating SNL parodies. So who plays Walz – and how – may affect how history remembers him more than