Saturday Night Live

I think they mean this is the first time someone has hosted the show while simultaneously running for President.

controversy = ratings, Trump is going to host

xpost I got that from the first sentence (and again: gross, Lorne), but the second seems to suggest that McCain and Giuliani and Forbes have only appeared in sketches a la Clinton's recent appearance. Which is incorrect.

Having Trump host SNL is a total Trump move.

McKinnon is skilled, but too many of her characters have the same manic traits. Maybe I am not watching close enough, but would like to see more range from her

You mean like how Bill Murray has played himself in every movie since Meatballs, only demonstrating "range" by barely talking at all (Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers)?

that's p unfair to Kingpin

Bill Murray has played himself in every movie since Meatballs

he is not "himself" in Rushmore or Mad Dog and Glory, for starters

yeah Mad Dog and Glory is an odd one

Not really himself in Wild Things, is he? Or Tootsie? Or ... well, I guess he is himself in Zombieland.

Bill Murray did not play himself in St. Vincent

he played himself with an accent

didn't he play FDR recently in some bullshit

Would even send SNL a check if they put Jorge Ramos in the audience and then had him stand up in the middle of Trump's monologue and ask serious questions. It would be one of the best TV moments of all time, though a backup guest would probably be wise.

It'd be nice to at least see some of the cast members pull a Nora Dunn wrt the Trump show.

Or dump a bucket of pig's blood on his head.

If the jokes are bad, we'll know why

I just want to see Trump's post-hosting tweets about how disgusting all the women on the show are

scroll up for a preview

loooooooooooooool

Also Trump hosting is fucking awesome.

Toooootally. I wish they'd given David Duke a platform back when he was running for president. I guess it's never too late, Lorne!

I wonder if native NYC-metro area people respond to Trump differently than most other Americans. I still identify Trump as a sort of 80's tabloid clown on par with Geraldo Rivera, Cutis Sliwa, George Steinbrenner etc. Clearly a dick but also an obviously pretend ideologue, posing no threat except in his own sphere, played for laffs.

The David Duke analogy wld work if maybe Ted Cruz or somebody was hosting.

I viewed Trump in that way until he began his presidential campaign. Given that his new platform grants an air of legitimacy to the hateful views that he shares with a segment of the population, I definitely think he's dangerous.

those hateful views have been granted an air of legitimacy since plymouth rock

lol curtis sliwa

xpost Wait— whose eyes does Donald Trump grant anything an "air of legitimacy"?? He's masterful at capitalizing on preexisting hateful ideas already prevalent among tea partiers but I think you're vastly overestimating his ability to persuade anybody, cf. Sarah Palin (also indulged by SNL)

(in whose)

I don't think he's persuading anyone who was on the fence of the correctness of his ideas, but I do think that, as a Republican frontrunner, he encourages those who share his ideas to be more vocal (or, worse, active) in their own hateful expressions. So I think giving him another high-profile national platform is awful.

I gotcha but just about my question did you grow up w/ Trump as a constant on TV news etc.?

Unfortunately, yeah, but maybe not to the extent that I would have if I'd grown up in NYC. He seemed like Morton Downey, Jr. with money.

the last salutary thing Lorne did for comedy was put TKITH on TV

Kinda hard-pressed to disagree.

yup

btw having been exposed firsthand to Rudy Giuliani for 8 solid years, i'd argue he's just as racist as Trump, just with a slightly more efficient internal censor -- and SNL fellated him quite vigorously.

yeah that was p gross at the time too

"He seemed like Morton Downey, Jr. with money."

This is not who he was at all though, that's my point. Downey's bread-and-butter was white hate. Trump was just a rich asshole with hotels and casinos who remarried young blondes and liked to be on TV. This race-baiting and crass patriotism is a late, late development c. Obama inauguration as an income/attention generator. He never had any political identity at all prior to this.

yeah he started to make hay by being a demented birth certificate truther - real political red meat

Sorry, I should've specified that that was my underformed pre-pubescent image of Trump: just another gross, braying, middle-aged white dude.

Yiiiiiikes.

Care to expound?

Some decent moments in the first ten-fifteen, after that Trump sucks all of the goodwill out of the room (the Trump Whitehouse and then Trump tweeting sketch seemed to be the start) and even the rare funny moment seems to slip past without the audience noticing.

Well, good on ya for watching to report back. I couldn't bring myself to do it.

The AV Club has a thorough dissection if anyone wants to read it.

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/donald-trumps-appearance-shows-snl-its-nadir-228101

Good write-up and I generally agree that it was doomed from the start.

I got through the monologue and the White House sketch--unbelievably bad. When Hillary's comic timing is better than yours, that's a very red flag.

snl was never good, american comedy rooted in improv is the worst american art form

American comedy rooted in improv is often great. American improv is often bad. SNL is often terrible because it conspires against itself to hamper its potential, by hiring non-actors/non-comedians to host, then rushing through the writing process in the days leading up to air like it's some kind of achievement to scrape together a last-minute live show that even at its peak was famously hit or miss. SNL is like the entitled smart kid rushing through their college paper the night before, hoping for a C, happy if they get a higher grade, but shrugging it off if they fail. And learning nothing in the process.

its weird to say but theres sortof not enough material or its already absurd enough w/r/t trumps persona/character, like refs abt rosie or omoroso? ugh…like they shouldve redone every tracy morgan sketch instead and just had trump play tracy

Last night was the first time I've caught some of the current cast; seems to be more than a 50% turnover from the cast I was fairly familiar with a couple of years ago. Are they as bad as they looked during the first 20 minutes last night? They should avoid bringing out Darrell Hammond, whose comparative mastery just shines a light on that.

I've watched clips all morning and I'm really bummed out. Nothing was funny, nothing was good. Read three or four think pieces on the whole fiasco outside. IMO, it was more of a reflection of how showy and "HEY LOOK AT ME" the whole idea has become of being a person who runs for public office. Not saying that anybody elected to do anything is an asshole and that they're all bad people, it just has an empty feel to it for me. Like I just can't get over how the whole thing was one big move for Trump's campaign and how many behind the scenes deals and greasy handshakes were made. I think this is the breaking point where I realize that maybe not voting is the only option that won't leave me feeling nauseous. I've hit max cynicism and it feels very lonely here.

I'm gonna go listen to SMiLE now. Because jesus christ.