How Saturday Night Live Savagely Betrayed Donald Trump
I have not watched an entire episode of Saturday Night Live since the one hosted by now President Trump. You might think that’s because I saw that notorious episode as a nadir so dire, so morally reprehensible and comedically barren that the show could never recover from it. Ever.
The opposite is true, actually! I don’t watch Saturday Night Live because I feel, no, I know that the show attained a level of perfection that night that can never be approached, let alone topped. I saw Saturday Night Live and comedy at its absolute best, the pinnacle of an art form. I would be in for crushing disappointment were I ever to watch Lorne Michaels’ venerable comic institution again.
We saw Donald Trump for who he really was on that historic episode. We saw a man with a wonderful sense of humor about himself, who understands and appreciates the absurdity of life. We saw a man who has joy and light and amiable mischief in his playful soul. We saw a man who loves to laugh but above all we saw a man who loves to make other people laugh and is maybe better at it than anyone else alive.
We saw a man so hilarious and warm, funny and likable that he deserved to be President of the United States despite a complete lack of relevant experience.
Trump put on a masterclass in comedy hosting Saturday Night Live. He was the ultimate performer, a virtuoso who has mastered every form of comedy, from mime to improvisation to stand-up to sketch to Commedia dell’arte and brought all of those gifts together to create the perfect comic beast, God’s own cut-up.
Why wouldn’t Trump absolutely destroy on this most savage and unforgiving of stages? It is an open secret in comedy circles that in addition to being a great leader and a great businessman Donald Trump is one of the funniest men alive. But the public doesn’t know it because Trump is too humble to flaunt his comic genius, preferring to stay behind the scenes or perform under aliases.
People don’t realize this but Donald Trump is the only person in history to be a main stage performer at The Groundlings, Second City and Upright’s Citizen’s Brigade simultaneously. That’s because Trump is too modest to want credit for all of the hilarity that he so effortlessly creates so he insisted on performing under stage names like Jerry Glump, Fronald Lump, Barron Frump and Jerry Westershire.
Before The Apprentice, Trump honed his comic chops with some of the most elite and challenging comedy troupes in history. The revered improvisation duo T.J & Dave, for example, began as T.J & Dave & Donald Trump until the legendary businessman-clown decided that his fame was proving too much of a distraction, and graciously left the trio.
Rumor has it John Cleese aggressively courted Trump to join Monty Python on a world-wide reunion tour and that Mr. Show with Bob and David was originally Mr. Show with Bob, David and Donald Trump before Trump chose to take more of a behind-the-scenes role, writing classic sketches like “The Story of Everest” and “Marilyn Monster Pizza Parlor.”
In the 1990s, Trump was a fixture at 30 Rock. Lorne Michaels held the former reality show host in such high esteem that he asked Trump to be the show’s permanent host but he declined. Michaels has such faith in Trump’s instincts that he is literally the only person in the history of Saturday Night Live who has permission to improvise AND swear. And I’m not just talking about garden variety profanity, either. No, Michaels trusts Trump’s instincts to the point where he is free to drop as many N bombs as he’d like because the Commander-in-Chief/funnyman has such impeccable judgment that it would not only be appropriate and non-offensive for Trump to use that kind of language, but downright cathartic and subversive, not to mention hilarious.
Everyone wanted to mix it up with Trump when he was holding court at 30 Rock. Eddie Murphy stopped by for the first time in decades to play improv games with Trump. So did Steve Martin, Albert Brooks, Richard Pryor and a young Dave Chappelle, all of whom were blown away by how quick and agile and riotously funny Trump’s comic mind was.
Who followed Trump around like a lost puppy when he blessed 30 Rock with his presence in early dawn riffing sessions and crazy, booze-filled late nights where Trump mesmerized onlookers with impromptu performances of Mort Sahl and George Carlin albums that the real estate mogul committed to memory?
Why a journeyman sitcom actor named Alec Baldwin, who peppered the mogul with oily compliments and smarmy praise, gushing about how funny Trump was, and how his reputation as a legendary, legendarily well-endowed master cocksman preceded him and how he could never hope to be as funny or handsome or cool as Trump no matter how badly he might try.
So you can only imagine how betrayed Trump must have felt watching this fawning sycophant make fun of him—on his beloved playground of Saturday Night Live, no less! For decades, Saturday Night Live was a special place for Trump, a home away from home, a haven and a heaven where he could be his best, truest, funniest self.
And now Saturday Night Live was doing something unprecedented and possibly even illegal and libelous: making fun of the President on television.
I don’t blame Trump for feeling betrayed.
So I beg Lorne Michaels to finally do the right thing and issue a public apology to Donald Trump, invite him to host Saturday Night Live and devote the show to more worthy satirical targets, like Barack Obama wire-tapping Trump and Hillary Clinton’s emails and shameful misconduct in Benghazi.
That’s the only way Michaels could save face and undo the damage that his arrogance and cruelty have wrought.
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