Acting overly excitable in a suit from Costco, comedian Jim Gaffigan poked fun at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s Midwestern-dad sensibilities on the season premiere of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” recently.

“Folks, I haven’t been this excited since I got a 10% rebate on a leaf blower from Menards,” Gaffigan said during the opening sketch.

In the sketch Gaffigan impersonated Walz as the Democratic vice presidential nominee alongside former “SNL” cast member Maya Rudolph as Walz’s running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris; former cast member Andy Samberg as her husband, Doug Emhoff; and “SNL” legend Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden.

The question of who would play Walz on “SNL” was the subject of much speculation; comedian Steve Martin was an early fan-favorite choice but evidently declined the role. Gaffigan has performed in Minnesota many times, including Minnesota State Fair Grandstand appearances in 2017 and 2022.

And in fact, Walz and Gaffigan have quite a bit in common.

Both have similar upbringings

Walz and Gaffigan have origins in relatively large Midwestern families. The governor, born in 1964, grew up in rural north-central Nebraska with three siblings. The comedian, born in 1966, was raised in Chesterton, Indiana, with five siblings.

Both inspired by fathers’ careers but changed paths

At 17, Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard; after college, he became a public school teacher and coach. Walz joined the National Guard on the encouragement of his father, who served during the Korean War and spent his career working in the public education system, he said in a Facebook post.

Gaffigan — following in the footsteps of his own father, a banker — earned a college degree in finance and got a job as a litigation consultant. Later, when he moved to New York City and began pursuing comedy at night, he worked as an advertising account manager.

Both were football players

Before Walz led high school football teams as “Coach Walz” — the nickname made it into the “SNL” skit — he ran high school track and played basketball and football. He was a wide receiver but played defensive lineman his senior year.

Gaffigan also played football at high school and collegiate levels: During a one-year stint at Purdue University, he was a walk-on to the Big Ten school’s team, and after transferring to Georgetown University, he played offensive guard and tackle.

Both were affected by young death of a parent

Walz was in high school when his father died of cancer.

“This certainly shaped me as it deals with health care,” Walz said in a 2018 campaign video. “That last week cost my mom a decade of having to go back to work to pay those bills. I ran for Congress on this idea that health care was a basic, universal human right.”

Gaffigan’s mother died when he was in his early 20s, and he has said her death helped push him to more wholeheartedly pursue his passion for entertainment.

Both have a penchant for Midwestern comfort food

This summer, the food website Eater described Walz as “a hype man for Minnesota foodways” — he makes hotdish, he eats pork chops and ice cream at the State Fair, he loves corn dogs.

Many of Gaffigan’s best-known comedy bits revolve around foods like Hot Pockets — which bear a similarity to the runza, a Nebraska enclosed sandwich of sorts of which Walz is a devoted fan. Gaffigan has also been quite vocal about his love for other Midwestern delights, from Chicago deep-dish pizza to butter burgers in his book “Food: A Love Story.”