The mere fact that “Saturday Night Live” had billionaire and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as host on Saturday has some liberals seething in anger, almost a week after the program aired.
In a new article posted Thursday on the Nation’s website, the venerable liberal magazine did an unscientific poll of comedians on whether TV comic Larry David deserved a $5,000 reward given out by a liberal group for calling Trump “racist” during the show. Most said no because the incident, which was clearly staged, allowed Trump to laugh off the accusation.
Prior to the show, a group called DeportRacism.com PAC offered $5,000 to anyone who would call Trump a racist during the show, presumably hoping someone in the studio audience would create an unexpected disruption during the live program. Instead, David, star of the cable show “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and an occasional contributor to SNL, shouted it out during Trump’s opening monologue. David then shrugged and explained that he was trying to win the award.
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“As a businessman, I can fully respect that,” Trump replied.
Nation contributor Katie Halper said the way the bit played out pained her.
“I, too, wanted to see David’s act as a subversive anti-Trump protest. David got to call Trump racist! And I’m sure David does genuinely view him as a racist. But I couldn’t help seeing it as a bit of an inside joke between Trump and David at the expense of those who genuinely protested NBC’s decision to host a leading Republican candidate known for his racism and vitriol,” she said.
Halper then asked several comedians what they thought. The consensus was that it allowed Trump to, well, trump the protesters.
“SNL wanted to celebrate Trump and wag a finger at him. When Larry David [called] Trump racist, that felt ‘all in good fun,'” said radio comedian Gabe Pacheco.
Sirius Radio host Dean Obeidallah went further than that saying it undermined the message liberals wanted to get out regarding Trump. “He sort of laughed off the racism claims … It could even be seen as mocking the validity of the protesters’ claims.”
Comedian Julianna Forlano agreed, saying the SNL bit “left the protesters open to ridicule.”
Frank Conniff, former star of the TV series “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” resorted to using all caps to express his frustration. “Let’s be clear: LARRY DAVID DID NOT CALL TRUMP A RACIST. That was part of a sketch and the main purpose of that moment was to blunt the criticism of protesters who had a legitimate grievance.”
The one disagreement came from DeportRacism.com founder Luke Montgomery, who said shortly after the skit that David would get the $5,000. Montgomery argued that the incident brought “massive media to the issue” and said, “We Love that Larry called him a racist.” He disputed the notion that the skit allowed Trump to best the protesters.
“While they tried to make light of it, the fact that they were forced to acknowledge it using Larry ended up getting our message [out],” he said.
Halper concluded the piece by saying she leaned toward that view, though she also noted, “Montgomery clearly has some skin in the game, when it comes to determining the effectiveness of a PR campaign organized by the very PAC he founded.”
