Saturday Night Live took another shot at the President-Elect in a sketch featuring actor Alec Baldwin, this time picking at Donald Trump’s first press conference since his election. It was hilarious, and anybody who disagrees with me is a hack.
Okay, I am half-kidding. I’ll admit, much of the humor in SNL’s Trump sketch this week comes not from original parody content, but recycled stereotypes that are only funny if you still hold to them.
Baldwin as Trump is undoubtedly one of the most entertaining things on SNL right now, and the lines he uses to mock the real ones from his press conference rolling-on-the-floor level comedy. But, there is still an underlying politically-charged theme to the sketch that somewhat reduces the comedic effect if you don’t buy into the unmoving narrative of Trump as an air-headed, pussy-grabbing white supremacist. It gets old after a while, and worse, predictable.
The sketch starts off with Baldwin’s character announcing he will become the 45th president on January 20th, only to be succeeded by his vice president, Mike Pence. Presumably, that would happen if an assassination were to happen or if the presidency was suddenly declared as some kind of inside prank. He continues by naming the pets owned by the previous presidents, adding he will add his own to the collection: Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan.
“I’m so excited to live in the White House, I’m even gonna have a little pet like all the presidents do. Bill Clinton had Socks, Barack Obama had Bo, and I’m gonna have Paul Ryan,” he says, adding hilariously (and quite relevantly) he “cannot wait to give it to that man for four years.” The recurring presence of Trump’s ‘pee-pee’ golden shower scandal in the SNL sketch was epic and quite relevant to the news cycle as well.
Less relevant were the jabs at Trump for supposedly having paid actors cheering for him, bringing wax-figures to represent an illusion of a celebrity presence at his inauguration, and the portrayals of his sons as two dracula-like doofuses. Trump’s opponents attempting to make his followers seem like they’re not real has been a common theme throughout this election, and arguably one of the main reasons for Democrats’ unexpected loss.
In fact, leaked videos showed the Clinton campaign, not the Trump campaign, had paid actors infiltrate Trump campaigns and attempt to make them look vicious. The Clinton campaign, not the Trump campaign, had trouble adapting to the show-business element of campaigning and entertainment. The Clinton campaign, not the Trump campaign, had glaring issues with seeming out-of-touch with middle-class Americans.
The SNL sketch, while funny, is bound to a tight narrative which doesn’t allow it to organize wit based on facts. These scenes could have been so much better without the one-sided playbook.
Watch the video below:
