Enough has been written about Donald Trump’s appearance on Saturday Night Live during the past week that I’m not going to add another take on whether he should have hosted or not. We know why SNL would want Trump (ratings), and we know why Trump would want to host (ego), so it makes perfect sense for everyone involved.
That doesn’t necessarily mean it was a good idea, and this uneventful episode was pretty much what I was expecting. Not a whole lot from Trump, one of two decent sketches, and that’s about it. I’m sure Trump’s base will think the show was fantastic, and pretty much everyone else will say it was the worst episode of the season. I don’t think hosting SNL will hurt or help his presidential chances because I don’t think he actually has a chance, but it’s definitely not going to help.
Cold Open: MSNBC Democratic Presidential Forum
Larry David returned as Senator Bernie Sanders and, once again, stole the show. I really hope they don’t run this into the ground too fast because I really enjoy David’s appearances as Sanders. Maybe they can take a few weeks off, but with two debates in the next few weeks, we might see David back on SNL sooner rather than later.
Best Sketch: Bad Girls
It may not be too surprising that the best sketch of the night didn’t include Trump. At first, you may think this is a continuation of the holiday sketches with the female cast from the previous two seasons, but they’re not using their names. Sorry, there’s no “Lil’ Baby Aidy” in this one folks, just some “bad girls.”
Second Best Sketch: Mr. Crocker
After being left out of the previous two episodes, Beck Bennett had his fair share of screentime during this episode. He knocks it out of the park as a dad who falls in with a skeezy record producer (Trump) who has him create his own versions of songs by Flo Rida, Pitbull, Wiz Khalifa, and Maroon 5. This sketch is currently not available from any of the SNL sites due to music rights issues.
Weekend Update Moment: Drunk Uncle
If there was one recurring character who could ridicule Trump, while also being one of his supporters, it would be Bobby Moynihan’s Drunk Uncle. Dubbed “Trump’s number one fan,” Drunk Uncle goes through the various motions we’ve all become accustomed to, but it’s one line that secures this appearance as an all-time great, “It’s like I’m running for president.” It is Drunk Uncle, it really is.
Michael Che and Colin Jost seemed a little off for the second episode in a row, but got in a couple of nice jabs at Ben Carson and Jeb Bush, and Che had two pretty nice digs on Trump himself.
Best Names of the Night: Gene Breads and Tanya Grapes
I learned something because of this sketch; the laser harp is a real instrument. While this isn’t a particularly good sketch, it does contain two of the best names I’ve heard on SNL in some time, Gene Breads (Trump) and Tanya Grapes (Aidy Bryant).
Also while watching this sketch, I had a thought that they could easily re-shoot most of this episode and replace Trump. I actually went back and timed the amount of onscreen time Trump spends with the cast. It totaled roughly seven minutes with the monologue and good-byes, or less than five minutes in the sketches (with 90 seconds of that an odd Toots [Kenan Thompson] from Toots and the Maytals sketch/introduction of Sia). I’ve never tracked that number for any other host, but it seemed odd (or maybe not) that Trump spent most of the episode by himself.
Other Notes:
There was an awkward silence when Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, made her appearance during the “White House 2018” sketch. Either someone forgot to push the button for the applause sign or no one recognized Ivanka.
Martin Short made a guest appearance during the parody of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” as Ed Grimley.
The ratings for this episode were the best for SNL since 2012 when Charles Barkley hosted.
The activist group, Deport Racism, tweeted out Sunday that they will pay Larry David the $5,000 prize for yelling, “Trump’s a racist,” during the monologue:
#LarryDavid wins $5K “bounty” from https://t.co/PcIfWXCmnT for calling Trump RACIST on #SNL. Joke or not, it’s true pic.twitter.com/qHFJ3cYmQQ
— Deport Racism (@DeportRacism) November 8, 2015
Saturday Night Live returns on Nov. 14 with host Elizabeth Banks and musical guest Disclosure. It has been reported that Disclosure will be joined onstage by Lorde and Sam Smith.
