Saturday Night Live cast makes its case to stay off Trump’s enemies list 

NEW YORK – A serious development in current events can sometimes leave late-night live sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) unable to make any satirical comment on it, and that was briefly how it appeared the show might react to the

re-election of former United States president Donald Trump on Nov 5

.

The Nov 9 broadcast began with seeming solemnity, as a group of SNL cast members, including Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim, Kenan Thompson and Heidi Gardner, took note of Trump’s presidential election victory over US Vice-President Kamala Harris, who had made a

surprise cameo on SNL on Nov 2

.

“To many people,” Nwodim said, “including many people watching this show right now, the results were shocking and even horrifying”.

Gardner continued: “Donald Trump, who tried to forcibly overturn the results of the last election, was returned to office by an overwhelming majority.”

Thompson said: “This is the same Donald Trump who openly called for vengeance against his political enemies.”

“Now,” said Yang, “thanks to the Supreme Court, there are no guard rails.”

Nwodim added that there would be “nothing to protect the people who are brave enough to speak out against him”.

“And that is why,” Thompson said, “we at SNL would like to say to Donald Trump: We have been with you all along.”

The cast members added that they all believed in and voted for Trump.

“Because we see ourselves in you,” Nwodim said. “We look at you and think, ‘That’s me.’”

American actress Sarah Sherman added: “That’s the man I want my future children to look up to.”

In its first broadcast after Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election, SNL did not immediately try for laughs.

That show famously opened with American actress Kate McKinnon, who had played that race’s losing Democratic candidate, Mrs Hillary Clinton, seated at a piano in character and performing Canadian singer Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (1984). McKinnon then turned to the camera and said: “I’m not giving up and neither should you.”

That sketch was intended as a tribute both to Mrs Clinton’s loss and to Cohen, who had died earlier that week, but it has since come to epitomise the show’s mawkish sentimentality in moments it cannot bring itself to satirise.

This time, however, SNL let many of its cast members lampoon their own disappointment and apprehension, including Colin Jost, who has frequently mocked Trump on the Weekend Update segment he anchors with Michael Che.

Speaking to the camera, Jost said: “Mr Trump, your honour, we know that you say things that are controversial sometimes, but really, you’re just speaking the truth. And I hate how the lamestream media – Michael Che – tried to spin it to make you look foolish.”

The opening sketch also featured SNL alumnus Dana Carvey performing an impression of Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, and James Austin Johnson as a new musclebound character he called “hot, jacked Trump”.

“Because he’s frankly my hero,” Johnson said. “And he’s going to make an incredible president and eventually king.”

In conclusion, Yang said: “All of us at SNL are so excited for Trump 2.0. Which is also what I blew on a breathalyser Wednesday morning.”

Nwodim said: “We can’t wait to see what you do with the country this time. I keep waking up in the middle of the night, screaming. With joy, of course.” NYTIMES