‘SNL,’ Bill Maher, and Awful Political Humor
It was the final weekend before the presidential election, and the level of humor about the candidates remained rock-bottom low. On Saturday Night Live, Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin did their final Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump sketch, and it was miserably unfunny. Baldwin-Trump kissed performers dressed as the FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and Vladimir Putin to make us laugh at real-Trump’s fan-following with these folks. Not hilarious. McKinnon-Hillary made a Tic-Tac joke about Trump this late in the proceedings. Not hilarious.
What was that final part of that sketch supposed to tell us? Baldwin and McKinnon broke character to ask each other if they each did not feel “gross about this.” What’s “this”? The election? The sketches in which they’ve been participating? The country as it will exist on the morning of Nov. 9? When the two actors ran through Times Square to hug and be friendly with a diverse group of people, I assume we were supposed to be reassured that, no matter that the outcome, we’re all one big American family. If so, the reassurance was a pathetic failure.
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On Friday night, over on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher, the host interviewed President Obama. The reason Maher was dead last among talk-show hosts to interview the president became instantly apparent. As always, Maher makes any occasion all about himself, even when he’s sitting in the White House. Maher said he thinks that if Trump is defeated, “the takeaway” from the entire election is that “socialism is not such a dirty word anymore, because of our friend Bernie Sanders.” That’s the takeaway from the entire election for Bill Maher? Ye gods…
He had no incisively phrased questions for Obama — neither about the election nor the president’s policies. He wasted time asking about the legalization of marijuana, a cause for which Maher will never stop campaigning until he has the right to be high 24 hours a day in all 50 states. And there was something about “food purity,” phrased in a way that made you think Maher is less concerned about what poor people in America eat than he is in making sure his high-end market in Los Angeles serves him stuff that is at least as primo as his dope supply. Then Maher resumed his usual show, with a panel that helped him sneer witlessly at Trump. The only thing surprising about the Obama segment was the president’s telling Maher that he watches him “all the time.” Really? C’mon, man.
Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:35 p.m. on NBC. Real Time With Bill Maher airs Fridays at 10 p.m. on HBO.
