On Saturday, America’s favorite sketch show was once again “Live from New York”; however, in keeping with the bizarre storyline of 2020, it was a little over 24 hours after President Trump arrived at Walter Reed Medical Center. Trump’s diagnosis on Thursday night and Friday morning, had spurred a barrage of tweets joking about how “Saturday Night Live” (“SNL” ) writers had to come up with a way to shoehorn the president’s diagnosis into the show and, somehow, make it funny and sensitive.
Trump’s diagnosis comes amid one of the most bizarre years filled with seemingly “plot twists” at every turn. “SNL” might be viewing this as an opportunity to go back to its golden years. It is certainly no surprise that “SNL” was going to poke fun at a president that makes it easy to poke fun. But can a Harry Styles meditation tape alleviate what some thought were jokes that went too far?
At the tail end of Jim Carrey’s Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden debut in the cold open parodying last Tuesday’s general election debate, he says: “America, look at me. Look directly into my eyeballs,” Carrey as Biden says. “You can trust me because I believe in science.”
He pauses a second. “And Karma.”
“Now just imagine science and karma could somehow team up to send us all a message about how dangerous this virus can be. I’m not saying I want it to happen,” he says in reference to the events of Thursday night. “Just imagine it.”
Alec Baldwin’s Trump also made a joke about how he’ll likely regret some of what he was saying later in the week.
Comedy is a delicate balance of trying to shock the viewer and make them laugh while also not alienating. “SNL” writers had to work at warp-speed in order to catch up, but did working that hard make some jokes go too far? This is the first episode of the 46th season in an election year. Doesn’t that mean that while there is plenty of experience, the writers and cast members should tread lightly? Chris Rock and Michael Che didn’t exactly do that.
Rock--the season’s first host--joked in his monologue: “President Trump’s in the hospital from COVID, and I just want to say my heart goes out to COVID.”
Later, Che--of Weekend Update--acknowledged the scenario had all the makings of a good joke and added: “I don’t want Trump to die. I just wish him a very lengthy recovery.”
Were the jokes funny? Perhaps in a sort of uncomfortable way. However, it is difficult to tell if they were appropriate given the circumstances. After all, this was a bizarre situation. A president at Walter Reed Medical Center being treated for a brand-new disease that has left a good deal of the United States at home since March. A president that has routinely flouted the rules and hosted a confirmation hearing gathering that has left a number of attendees with COVID. Two attendees were hospitalized:Trump and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
However, with no precedent of how to handle this sort of comedy, did “SNL” take it too far? Election season routinely sends their ratings up, shouldn’t they want to protect that?
FiveThirtyEight has Trump’s disapproval rating at 53.8% and “SNL” played into that. It’s what they’ve done with unpopular presidents for ages and with a star such as Alec Baldwin doing such a marvelous job of impersonating Trump, it is no surprise that they want to utilize him as much as possible.
With events of the last couple of days, it is easy to see why “SNL” would have chosen to do the jokes and in that case, it may have been appropriate. President Trump was up and walking and saying hello to supporters in a car with Secret Service agents, he was waving from a White House balcony, and he was released from Walter Reed. While comedy helps keep this country alive and laughing and perhaps seeing things in a different light, “SNL” was live when Trump’s well-being was mostly unknown. COVID-19 is so unknown and dangerous that people are scared. So, if the outcome of the disease is unknown, maybe it’s best to lay off, even when it is someone who has largely brushed off the impact of the disease and has put people at risk.
The jokes were continuously tongue-in-cheek and has likely been one of the few bipartisan successes of the year, leaving both sides of the aisle uncomfortable. In trying to be edgy to reclaim the glory days of Eddie Murphy, Kristen Wiig, and Seth Meyers, “SNL” didn’t quite hit the mark.