Donald Trump stood in the Oval Office in 2018, basking in the successes he’d already reaped as president. He listened while his aides informed him that ISIS had been eliminated, Mexico had paid for a giant wall and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had cried for hours after speaking with him.
Sound like promising satire? This sketch could have been, but the rest of Saturday Night Live’s Nov. 7 showing fell far short of the program’s usual high standards. Hosted by Trump, the SNL episode can only be described as awkward.
As per the tradition for guest hosts, Trump kicked off his appearance with a “monologue” — the definition used loosely because a Trump look-alike joined him on either side.
The Trumps stayed away from anything of substance and boasted about their “nice guy” attitude and “best monologue in SNL history” instead. By the time they started spouting Trump’s catchphrases, like “You’re fired!” from the television series “The Apprentice,” the monologue was more exaggeration than comedy.
“Seinfeld” sit-com co-creator Larry David, who plays SNL’s Bernie Sanders, gave hope for genuine laughter when he shouted “Trump’s a racist!” from the wings, as Trump still maintains he is “the least racist person there is.” David explained that the organization Deport Racism had offered $5,000 to any audience member who spoke the phrase.
Trump smoothly responded, “As a businessman, I can fully respect that,” without a moment’s hesitation and made it clear that the all too-scripted scenario had been a setup.
Still, David’s disruption garnered some of the most laughter all night. The show relied too much on “humorous” criticisms of Trump that were only gentle prods, and nothing more.
A “Live Tweeting” sketch by Trump fell particularly flat. While he fake-tweeted insults toward cast members portraying people at a restaurant, they pretended to break down and lose character on stage.
Yet these insults, including “Cecily Strong is not a nice person” and “Kate McKinnon was born stupid,” were far less scathing than what Trump has actually tweeted in real life. In two separate tweets, he has called The Huffington Post’s co-founder Arianna Huffington “unattractive both inside and out” and “a dog who wrongfully comments on me.” On SNL, any laughter Trump managed to elicit from the audience was as empty as the insults he made.
When he actually appeared in sketches, he looked and sounded like a bore, which is ironic considering that he loves to label rival candidate Jeb Bush as “low energy.” Each forced joke in the show contrasted with the improvised flair and bluntness Trump has shown on the campaign trail.
This lackluster tone is a failure on the writers’ part because they could have incorporated humor that worked around any fears of “risqué” scenes, rather than making half-hearted criticisms that drew laughter from few.
By the end of the hourlong episode, each lifeless joke was a painful reminder that yes, this was supposedly a comedy show. It’s clear that any of Trump’s future attempts at comedy are best left to his campaign.