‘SNL’ Pledges Allegiance to Hot, Jacked Trump

Saturday Night Live knew it had to address a new reality this weekend. After a series of shows this fall showcasing Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris, how would SNL pivot after the landslide re-election of Donald Trump? To the show’s credit, it didn’t wallow in maudlin self-pity as in 2016 when Kate McKinnon as Hilary Clinton wailed “Hallelujah.” 

It also avoided another mistake of the past, sidestepping Alec Baldwin’s buffoonish impression that dominated the show’s cold opens for four years. Those shrill bits weren’t funny in real time, and they’ve aged even worse.

Instead, SNL opted for a new approach, opening the show with its most popular cast members pledging their fealty to Donald Trump. Considering that the man has “openly called for vengeance against his political enemies” and a partisan Supreme Court means there’s “nothing to protect the people who are brave enough to speak out against him,” the cast of SNL wants Trump to know, “we have been with you all along.”

Everyone is for Trump. Everyone voted for Trump (except, apparently, the show’s three new cast members who are thrown under the bus). And as Colin Jost says, everyone at SNL “hates how the lamestream media — Michael Che — tries to spin it to make you look foolish.” 

The disparaging Trump impressions of the past are gone, replaced by a new (recurring?) character: Hot, Jacked Trump. HJT — a Frankenstein version of Trump stitched together with Hulk Hogan — flexes for America as James Austin Johnson explains the show’s new take. “From now on, we're going to do very flattering portrayal of Trump because he’s frankly my hero, and he’s going to make an incredible president and eventually king,” he says. “We love you, buddy.”

While the show was cozying up to old enemies, it paid tribute to another of its former hosts, Elon Musk. Portrayed by guess-he’s-a-cast-member-again Dana Carvey, this Musk sounds vaguely like Hans and Franz, informing us that, “I run the country now, and Americans can be like one of my rockets, you know? They’re super-cool and super-fun, but there’s a slight chance it could blow up and everybody dies.”

How did the cold open land with the studio audience? 

The bit got consistent but muted laughs, as if the crowd couldn’t quite decide how funny it was when Kenan Thompson let out a “Hail Trump.” Still, the sketch had the courage of its convictions, something that couldn’t quite be said of host Bill Burr’s monologue.

Burr has earned his “I’ll say whatever the eff I want” reputation, but he seemed wary last night, and the audience could smell his hesitancy. He began the monologue with a surprising proclamation: “I don’t watch politics, so we’re going to keep it light.” 

Really? He was going to ignore the Republican Elephant in the room? It seemed that way when he launched into a bit about getting the flu, possibly from a barefoot cowboy who sat next to him on a plane. 

After a couple of minutes of standard stand-up, Burr relented: “Let’s get to what you all want to talk about.” His take on the election wasn’t exactly high-minded — he told America’s female candidates that it’s time to put away the pantsuits and “whore it up a little. I’m not saying go full Hooters, but find the happy medium between Applebee’s and ‘your dad didn’t stick around.’ All right, you all know how to get a free drink.”

Acknowledging that “ugly women feminists” would hate those jokes, Burr gave us one more obvious take — the election season goes on too long — before breaking out his Black voice to imitate Shaquille O’Neal commercials. 

Burr didn’t quite go full Tony Hinchcliffe, but the jokes didn’t land. One reason was the awkward transitions between typical stand-up jokes and Burr’s political takes. Another was Burr’s seeming discomfort with how to handle the election, throwing in his own forced laughter to goose the audience into a response. 

I wasn’t expecting the SNL cast to have a sharper election take than Burr, but at least on Saturday night, the regulars delivered the heaviest blows.