For decades, Saturday Night Live has made a habit out of mocking the President of the United States. Phil Hartman was hilarious as Bill Clinton, and Will Ferrell killed it as George W. Bush. When Donald Trump entered the scene, Alec Baldwin played him perfectly. For the last few years, the President has been played by James Austin Johnson with comedic precision. However, for many, it’s getting harder to laugh at these SNL skits that portray Trump as a bumbling buffoon when the world around us is so dark. This came to a head last week following the killing of Alex Pretti by ICE in Minneapolis. Is it time for the Trump parodies to come to an end for now?
The Last Episode of ‘SNL’ Had an Awkward Cold Open
Alex Pretti’s shooting death on the Saturday morning of January 24 led to many Americans spending their day on their phones or watching cable news, where you could see Pretti’s recorded death from several angles over and over again. With a snowstorm shutting down much of the country, there was little else to do than stay inside and sit with the news, which came just weeks after the shooting death of Renee Good. It has become all too much for a lot of people, and normally we might want to escape with some comedy, but there is so little to laugh at lately for those paying attention.
Watching SNL last week felt weird. None of the sketches mattered, and guest host, Teyana Taylor, try as she might, didn’t click. Worst of all was the cold open, which, as the show often does, focused on Johnson’s parody of Trump. This time, the President was hosting the “Trump Awards”, with the joke being that he gave every award to himself. It highlighted Trump’s bizarre ego and the somehow real-life news that he added his name to the Kennedy Center and accepted Maria Corina Machado‘s Nobel Peace Prize as a gift. All of it felt off and incredibly awkward, a tone-deaf moment during a time of great anger and heartbreak. Johnson did sort of address what happened that day, with his Trump saying, “After what all my little freaks and psychos in ICE have been doing, I need more distractions.” We all do, but it’s getting difficult.
Many Fans No Longer Find James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump Funny
James Austin Johnson did a phenomenal job of playing Trump as always. He has an incredible gift for getting the voice and all the strange mannerisms right as he skewers the President’s weekly odd behavior. The problem is that the act is getting old when so many want a break from seeing Trump in our faces 24/7. Many of the comments on SNL‘s YouTube video of the cold open weren’t about how funny the segment was. Instead, they spoke about Alex Pretti, how hard it is to laugh at something so serious, and how the show is being too kind to Trump when they should go darker. An article from The Mirror highlighted the social media response with tweets like, “I used to enjoy watching the opening to SNL as they made fun of Trump. But it’s not funny anymore because it’s so serious. The president of violence has got to go.”
No ‘SNL’ Host Has Ever Beat This Groundbreaking Record That’s Over 40 Years Old
It’s hard to imagine anyone beating this record.
So what are Lorne Michaels and company to do? One option would be to remove Trump from SNL segments for the time being. Not every cold open needs to start out the same way, and as gifted as Johnson is, the light approach to the President only serves to make him more acceptable. The actor might be better off focusing on other characters, while the cold open could still mock real-life news without making Trump and his administration the target.
‘SNL’ Needs to Go Harder in Their Donald Trump Skits
That sounds doable enough, but is this the best option for Saturday Night Live? Removing the Trump impersonation skins could be seen as giving up, which is another way of accepting what the President is doing. And with how much he dislikes the parody of him, Trump could also boast that the lack of mocking him is a win. This is the last thing SNL needs!
There is another path forward. The best route is to stick with the Trump skits, except rather than throwing softballs by making fun of how Trump talks or his personality traits, they need to go hard. South Park is the best example of this. Trey Parker and Matt Stone didn’t hold back last year in how harshly they took down the President in each episode. The animated series can get away with more on Comedy Central than SNL can on NBC, but the latter doesn’t need to show Trump with his pants off to be effective. For example, South Park showed him in bed with Satan (a little bit of a double meaning there, eh), or in a rather serious moment, had the Jesus character giving up over how MAGA Christians act.
Jimmy Kimmel knows about this as well. Since the FCC tried to shut him down, Kimmel has been better than ever on Jimmy Kimmel Live, not by changing the subject, but by getting more serious and not being afraid to move away from the laughs when the situation calls for it. This has resulted in much higher ratings for the late-night host. South Park and Jimmy Kimmel know the way. It’s time SNL did the same thing. Comedy, especially through satire, is a way for humanity to hold a mirror up to the pain of real life. That can’t be eliminated, even when there’s nothing to laugh about.
