Donald Trump Turns 'SNL' Into 90-Minute Campaign Ad

by Julian Spivey
Donald Trump hosting “Saturday Night Live” on Saturday night (Nov. 7) wasn’t the worst episode of ‘SNL’ I’ve ever seen, but it was the first time I’ve ever seen the show sell out for ratings over artistry or integrity. As a huge fan of the show’s history and importance in pop culture I sincerely hope it never happens again.
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We knew since the moment it was announced that Trump would be hosting ‘SNL’ that it was a ratings play and the show would essentially be horrible when it came to making us laugh – which is the entire point and goal of the show. We knew this because Trump is not capable of reading lines and getting laughs from doing so as he’s not an actor or comedian – despite the fact that he hosted an episode once before in 2004. You know every time either a politician or athlete is tapped to host ‘SNL’ that it’s going to be a rough week.

There’s really no point to break the episode down sketch-by-sketch because pretty much all of them were incapable of being funny from the start. They were incapable of being funny because they featured someone in the main role who’s incapable of providing laughter and because the show was forced to play it safe this week.

‘SNL’ was forced to play it safe, because the host is unable to actually joke about himself without getting butt-hurt over it and doing so would’ve run the risk of Trump walking out last second and refusing to do the show (something we’ve seen him do on a small-scale on late night talk shows).

‘SNL’ is at its best when doing biting political satire and despite having the biggest political figure in the country right now (which is truly asinine when you think about it) as host they were unable to do that. And, don’t think it would have been the same with any political figure, because when Hilary Clinton appeared in a sketch in the season opener last month she stood there and let Kate McKinnon impersonating her make incredibly funny jabs at her to her face. It’s pretty bad when the famously staunch Hilary Clinton can be in on the joke, but the man who connects with much of America seemingly can’t.

So ‘SNL’ was set up to fail comedy-wise from the very start. NBC and ‘SNL’ executive producer Lorne Michael decided to sacrifice humor for the sake of massive ratings, which is pretty embarrassing, but just wait and see how huge these ratings are going to be when released on Sunday. I guarantee it’ll be the most watched ‘SNL’ episode in many years – possibly even an entire decade.

There were some highlights of the episode – Leslie Jones doing her always funny relationship expert bit on Weekend Update, in which she’s able to rip and roar on the trials of modern day dating in a bit taken directly from her stand-up style and Bobby Moynihan reprising his most famous character of Drunk Uncle (which has been away for far too long) as Donald Trump’s biggest fan. Drunk Uncle being Trump’s biggest fan was absolutely perfect and you can’t help but feel that Trump has actually based his Presidential run off of Drunk Uncle. Without Leslie Jones and Bobby Moynihan’s impact on Weekend Update this entire week’s episode of ‘SNL’ would’ve come off like a 90-minute Trump campaign ad featuring musical performances from Sia.

Hiring Donald Trump to host ‘SNL’ was a smart and shrewd business move by Michaels and NBC, but I can’t help believe it could prove to be dangerous. ‘SNL’ made Trump out to be your fun uncle that never quite grew all the way up when his views are frequently racist and his policies are seemingly non-existent. Making Trump into a likable figure could impact whether or not he’s elected as our President less than a year from now and that’s a joke that could never possibly be funny.

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