Saturday night, after a nice evening of watching both the Kentucky Derby and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies (where John Bon Jovi talked so long I was convinced he was going to thank his obstetrician next), we settled in to watch “Saturday Night Live.”
Now, if you’ve paid any attention at all in the last two years, SNL, once again, has become relevant — at least to people who don’t particularly care for Donald Trump. If there is any guarantee about Trump’s America it is that there’s enough going on between SNL shows so that by the time they air, they should have a wealth of material to cover.
Not only that, it would appear, judging from the number of celebrities who stop by 30 Rock on Saturday nights, that the heavy-hitters are lining up to get their shots in. Saturday, we had Ben Stiller, Martin Short, Scarlett Johansson, Jimmy Fallon, Alec Baldwin (of course!) and — best of all — the real Stormy Daniels. Two weeks ago it was Robert DeNiro.
The cold-opening sketch managed to corral all these celebrities, and synthesize all the various elements that have plagued Trump and his coterie of aides and lawyers in the past couple of weeks. Some of it was funny (well, in this case most of it was), and some of it fell flat.
Yes, everyone was having a good old time at The Donald’s expense. Kate McKinnon, who has already done all she can to make Jeff Sessions look as foolish as possible, has apparently turned her attention to Rudy Giuliani. And ya know, there’s enough to work with there to keep her on the show as long as she wants to be.
Saturday Night Live has been part of American culture since Chevy Chase was falling down stairs (mocking Gerald Ford) and introducing the weekly satirical news report by saying, “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not,” a swipe at every pompous, pretentious, blow-dried Ted Baxter clone who ever got in front of a camera.
Dan Aykroyd once did a spoof of Jimmy Carter talking someone down from a bad acid trip. Randy Quaid had Ronald Reagan down pat, and Dana Carvey’s George H.W. Bush was lethal.
Darrell Hammond did the best Bill Clinton, and let’s face it there was plenty to work with there too. Will Ferrell had his own way of doing George W., and it worked.
The point is, SNL has spared few presidents. And the show has always gone straight for the jugular, whether it was George W. mispronouncing (or misusing) words, Barack Obama’s apparent difficulty giving up smoking, Clinton’s philandering or Ford’s clumsiness.
So nobody should be surprised that Trump and his crew have been getting roasted, and nobody should feel victimized either. Trump, Sessions, Giuliani, Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway are all big boys and girls, just like all their predecessors. And we should all remember that the type of humor seen on SNL, and other shows, do a lot — one would hope — to keep our leaders from becoming too pompous and out of touch with the people they represent.
But how far should this comedy go? Should it get so personal it takes people to task for conditions they cannot control? At the White House correspondents’ press dinner last week (an event whose time has come … and gone), I thought Michelle Wolf came close to wading into that territory of “uncalled for.”
Those who know me know I’m not a Trump fan. And they know that, by and large, I am unsympathetic to most of his family (with the possible exception of Melania, who doesn’t seem all that thrilled to be where life has taken her) or the people with whom he surrounds himself.
But that doesn’t mean I think it’s OK for comics or anyone else to use crude terminology, or personal harpoons, to reinforce their distaste for people. Both Ivanka Trump and Sarah Sanders were subjected to ridicule that — I thought — either hit too close to home or were unnecessarily vulgar.
And Wolf, of course, had to make the obligatory comment about Chris Christie’s weight. Now, I don’t like Chris Christie either. He’s right up there with Rudy when it comes to being the political equivalent of a call girl. But the weight jokes are beneath people, especially if they’re representing the White House press in a quasi-professional setting. Nothing like wearing your bias on your sleeve.
During the campaign, Trump made it a point to ridicule a reporter with a physical handicap. There was no shortage of people — and I was certainly one of them — who were appalled at the idea of a man seeking the presidency displaying such cruelty as a matter of course. It was pretty much the most despicable moment of the campaign, to tell you the truth.
But if we’re going to lambaste him for doing that (and we should), or for calling struggling nations s*hole countries, then I think we who express such outrage have an obligation not to drag discourse into the gutter ourselves. You can’t have it both ways.
I will never argue the right, or even the duty, of people to speak up, and to use whatever device suits them — be it humor, music or journalism — to keep our leaders honest. Or to hit them with everything they’ve got, even if it’s harsh.
But if it’s done merely as way to pile on people who cannot readily control the things for which they are ridiculed (such as medical conditions, unbalanced eyes, height, and even weight), then count me out.