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Live from New York… It’s Hillary Clinton!

Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to appear on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, the latest — and highest stakes — appearance of her current push to show her funny, personable side as the campaign heads into the critical first Democratic debate and she faces headwinds in Iowa and New Hampshire and a potential challenge from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

In a top-secret appearance that her campaign would not confirm, Mrs. Clinton will meet her comedic counterpart, Kate McKinnon, who has portrayed the former first lady to effusive praise as the latest “S.N.L.” member to don a blonde wig and attempt to bring to life the character of Mrs. Clinton.

In order to appear, Mrs. Clinton turned down the chance to give the keynote address to the influential Human Rights Campaign, the country’s most powerful lesbian and gay rights group, which will allow her to make the debut “S.N.L.” appearance of her 2016 campaign, said several people with knowledge of her schedule who could not discuss private planning for attribution.

She is expected to pop in to join Ms. McKinnon as part of the so-called cold open skit, these people said. A spokeswoman for NBC declined to comment.

Both the show and NBC were hoping to make the appearance a splashy surprise. The show’s creator, Lorne Michaels, is well known for being tight-lipped about guests and has even changed the lineup at the last minute, which is still a possibility with Mrs. Clinton, whose own schedule is also fluid, these people said.

In the proposed skit, Mrs. Clinton would likely poke fun at herself for trying to appear more authentic while carefully plotting her path to the presidency. Ms. McKinnon, an unabashed Clinton supporter, told The Times’s Maureen Dowd that Mrs. Clinton was “a staunch, passionate lady, and in our culture, unfortunately, there’s something funny about that.”

In the opening skit on the night before Mrs. Clinton’s announcement in April, Ms. McKinnon, as Mrs. Clinton, prepared for her 2016 run with the help of her red-headed assistant, Kristina (based on the Clinton campaign’s deputy communications director, Kristina Schake).

“Meet my hand in the air!” Ms. McKinnon says, poking fun at the woodenness of Mrs. Clinton’s high-five.

“S.N.L.” has had a long history of depicting Mrs. Clinton. During the Clinton administration, the comedian Jan Hooks was Mrs. Clinton to Phil Hartman’s Bill Clinton. (Ms. Hooks’s Hillary got into a fistfight with Senator Bob Dole.) During Mrs. Clinton’s run for the Senate in New York, Ana Gasteyer portrayed her as a politician desperately trying to appear domestic. (“I can’t wait to prepare some food dishes in this kitchen, such as salads and toast,” Ms. Gasteyer’s Hillary says from her kitchen in Chappaqua, N.Y.)

But the truly memorable impression came during the 2008 presidential campaign when the pants-suit-wearing Amy Poehler portrayed Mrs. Clinton, eventually teaming up with Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin, to comedic gold and a ratings sensation for the long-running late-night show.

In one skit about sexism in the 2008 race, Ms. Fey’s Palin says “Please, stop photo-shopping my head on sexy bikini pictures!” Ms. Poehler’s Hillary adds, “And stop saying I have cankles!”

(Mrs. Clinton, at one point, sneaked off the campaign trail in 2008 to make a surprise appearance alongside Ms. Poehler in a skit that mocked news media bias to Senator Barack Obama and Mrs. Clinton’s guffaw of a laugh.)

In an odd instance of reality imitating art, Mrs. Clinton alluded to an “S.N.L.” skit during a Democratic debate in Ohio in 2008. “In the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time,” she told the moderators, who in the “S.N.L.” skit were accused of favoring Mr. Obama. “I don’t mind. I’ll be happy to field it,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I do find it curious and if anybody saw ‘Saturday Night Live,’ maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow.”

The appearance this Saturday, which one source cautioned could change if anything urgent came up on the campaign at the last minute, comes after Mrs. Clinton’s recent stints on NBC’s “Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “Lenny,” an online newsletter founded by the comedian and actress Lena Dunham.

Mrs. Clinton declined to say whose “S.N.L.” impersonation she prefers. “Amy’s a friend of mine, and Kate’s doing a great job,” she told CNN in July. “You’re not going to get me to pick one or the other. I think I’m the best Hillary Clinton, to be honest.”

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