‘Saturday Night Live’ acknowledges protests, plays it safe with host Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s monologue as host of “Saturday Night Live” involved three total Trumps on stage and someone calling him a racist, attempting to defuse what’s been a tense week for the show.
After boasting about his greatness and confusing cast member Aidy Bryant with rival Rosie O’Donnell, the Republican presidential candidate was joined by Taran Killam and Darrell Hammond doing Trump impressions. (Hammond also joined in the monologue when Trump first hosted in 2004.) After they hit some of the signature Trump lines, there was a shout of “You’re a racist.”
It came from comedian Larry David, who reprised his role of Senator Bernie Sanders. When Trump asked why David was there, he replied, “I heard if I yelled that, they’d give me $5,000.”
“As a businessman,” replied Trump, “I fully respect that.”
A Latino advocacy PAC offered $5,000 to anyone who heckled Trump during the show, the offer David was referring to in his offstage appearance. In October, Democratic congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois criticized “Saturday Night Live” creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels on the House floor , asking if he would have still had Trump host if the candidate had insulted Canadians (Michaels hails from Toronto). A crowd gathered Saturday outside the “SNL” studio in New York, protesting Trump’s appearance.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka made an appearance in her father’s first sketch of the evening, serving as the Secretary of the Interior in a hypothetical Trump White House where everything was going perfectly. Beck Bennett appeared in the sketch as Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto handing over a check to pay for the wall between the United States and Mexico. “SNL” currently has no Hispanic cast members and has only had three in its history.
Trump later introduced and then “live-tweeted” a sketch where graphics of his tweets mocked the cast members as they performed, including a jab at cast member Keenan Thompson as being Kenyan. Trump claimed in 2011 that President Obama was born in Kenya and his grandmother had admitted it on tape, which was not true.
The most meme-able moment of the evening came when Trump contributed to a parody of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” video.
Earlier in the week, Trump said he was keeping his jokes G-rated and had rejected more risqué sketches so as not to offend voters in Iowa. The Weekend Update segment opened with jokes about Jeb Bush, Obama and Ben Carson, but included references to Trump’s birtherism, the “Dump Trump” protestors outside and the title of his book. Recurring Update guest Drunk Uncle also came out as a supporter of the real estate mogul.
The rest of the night was largely uneventful with the host appearing as a laser harpist in a large band concerned about his solo time and a shady musical producer peddling Startraxx. His second introduction of musical guest Sia included a callback to his 2004 appearance when he introduced Toots and the Maytals. The sketch ended with him reminding Toots (played by Thompson) that he carried a gun.
The final sketch of the evening was a fake campaign ad for Trump featuring two recurring characters, Cecily Strong and Vanessa Bayer’s former porn stars. Trump appeared at the very end to proclaim that he in no way endorsed that particular message.
The show began with a cold open mocking Friday night’s MSNBC Democratic Candidates Forum, with David reprising his impersonation of Senator Bernie Sanders and breaking the “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night” with a “Live from New York…eh, you get it.” But Trump didn’t make an appearance.
As a whole, the show played it very safe, both in its use of Trump and in using any of the skits to directly attack the GOP candidate. While ratings will almost certainly be what Michaels hoped for, the episode will not be remembered as a comedic tour de force.
