Saturday Night Live’s recent ratings increase has been attributed to the show’s routine skewering of Donald Trump. But in the aftermath of his electoral victory, SNL has also taken aim at liberals more than once for failing to understand the president’s supporters.
In a sketch last Saturday, last Saturday, host (and Hillary Clinton supporter) Scarlett Johansson played the role of a scientist unveiling a new gadget that translates the thoughts of dogs for human comprehension, giving her personal pet the opportunity to demonstrate how the invention works.
“This is it, Max, speak!” Johansson commands to her beloved pug.
After a pause, Max finally responds intelligibly, telling the scientists, “I like park and leash and I like Trump – he’s my man.”
The stunned observers stutter, rationalizing, “It must be a translation error, some kind of glitch.”
“There’s no glitch,” Max shoots back, “Donald Trump is our president. He carried the Electoral College fair and square.”
“Max, no, you drop that right now! You don’t like Trump,” Johansson shouts.
“You’re dog is a monster!” another scientist exclaims.
After more scolding, Max says, “It’s just that condescending attitude that made people want to vote for Trump in the first place.”
“You’re supposed to be my best friend,” his owner complains.
“And as your friend, I don’t want to see your tax dollars going to healthcare for illegals,” Max replies.
After enduring a string of insults, Max calmly admonishes the humans for their own prejudices, countering, “You just assume because I’m a Trump supporter that I’m a xenophobic racist.”
This is not the first instance of SNL savaging elite urban white liberals who hate Trump.
Here, SNL flipped the script and juxtaposed the outlook of an average Trump supporter with the irrational and reflexive intolerance of the president’s critics. Coexisting in a friendship with Trump supporters remains incomprehensible to so many liberals who continue to assume the president’s advocates are necessarily bigoted and not worthy of respect.
Exiting the laboratory after disconnecting Max from the machine, Johansson fixed a pink Women’s March hat on his head, symbolically resolving to project her beliefs onto him for the foreseeable future. As long as he can’t talk, that is.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
