Molly Shannon reprised her Saturday Night Live character Mary Katherine Gallagher in Kamala Harris’s prerecorded contribution to the October 17, 2024 Al Smith Dinner. Harris did not attend the New York event in person: the sketch played as a comedic interruption of her on-screen address while she campaigned in Wisconsin.
What happened in Harris’s Al Smith Dinner video?
The annual Al Smith charity dinner was held in New York on October 17, 2024. Harris’s campaign sent a prerecorded video, during which Shannon appeared as Mary Katherine Gallagher, the excitable Catholic schoolgirl she played on Saturday Night Live. The character’s appearance disrupted Harris’s address within the video; Shannon did not show up at the dinner venue. CNN’s transcript records Harris saying the dinner offered “a rare opportunity to set aside partisanship” before asking Gallagher for advice about what to say.
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What was the joke?
The exchange drew on the dinner’s Catholic context. Gallagher advises Harris not to say anything negative about Catholics, as recorded in the CNN transcript. The humor came from Shannon’s familiar character interrupting the candidate’s formal, conciliatory message and offering advice in her own excitable style.
Why was Harris absent in person?
Harris was campaigning in Wisconsin rather than traveling to New York. The Associated Press reported that her campaign wanted her to spend as much time as possible in battleground states instead of making a detour to heavily Democratic New York. Donald Trump attended the dinner in person and criticized Harris for missing it, according to the Associated Press.
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How the candidates participated
Their appearances were different in format and setting: Harris contributed a taped video from the campaign trail, while Trump attended the New York dinner in person. The sketch was part of Harris’s prerecorded message, not a live exchange between the candidates at the event.
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