Stand-up comedians, comedy sketch groups, and everyday people alike often use comedy as an outlet to escape or address the current problems of the world. However, when it comes to politics on "Saturday Night Live," the cast preferred to tackle the problems head on through comedy and sometimes, it seems, drama, as well.
It is customary and somewhat expected for "SNL" to cover the “current events” happening in the country and around the world. Throughout the election period, the cast of "SNL" poked fun at both of the candidates while restaging all three debates and some other major events. In these episodes, Alec Baldwin played Donald Trump and Kate McKinnon played Hillary Clinton. It was somewhat surprising that the show picked Baldwin for this role since he was not a member of the current cast, and was usually only featured in the cold open as Trump. Baldwin has now said that he is “trying to shed the Donald Trump cloak.”
Before I get started with my critique, I would like to put forth a disclaimer. I recognize that this election was different from all the others. I recognize that there were and still are heightened emotions from both sides about each of candidates and what they stand for. And I also recognize that most of the writers and the cast are probably Democrats themselves. But wasn’t a huge theme of this election been inclusion and unity? If "SNL" really wanted to spread that message, shouldn’t they have thought about how much of the country they were isolating at the price of advertising their own political agenda?
A politics-heavy segment of the show is Weekend Update with Collin Jost and Michael Che. As the title suggests, the two discuss the current events of the past week, which naturally during the election year, will include some political headlines. Jost and Che changed the usual format from short jokes about many different topics, to a long rant about the election to a special character here and there to break up the segment. I used to enjoy this segment because of the random news stories that I never usually heard about, and the funny twist that they would put on them. But during the election, it was almost painful to watch Che and Jost’s diatribe on the election every week.
On a more specific note, during the cold open of the "SNL" after the election, Kate McKinnon played the piano as Hillary Clinton and sang “Hallelujah”. The two major events that spurred such an opening were, of course, Donald Trump winning the election and the passing of Lenoard Cohen, the original composer of the song. After she finished singing the song, she looked straight into the camera saying, “I'm not giving up. And neither should you. And live from New York, it's Saturday Night!” No jokes were made, no smiles were shown, and McKinnon seemed to be tearing up during the performance. I would like to compare this episode to the first episode of "SNL" that aired after 9/11. During that episode’s cold open, they honored the men and women that lost their lives and paid tribute to the many officers involved in the tragic event. Even after one of the most horrific events in modern history, "SNL" was able to slip a joke and a light-hearted attitude into the opening when Lorne Michaels asked, “Can we be funny?” to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who replied, “Why start now?”. Even in the first episode following 9/11, they were able to crack a joke in the cold open. And honestly, if you don’t think that 9/11 is worse than Donald Trump winning the election, I’m sorry you wasted your time reading this article at all.
My problem regarding "SNL" and their desire to discuss politics is simply how many of the sketches are about politics, and how biased the sketches are. The average person is involved in the discussion of politics when they turn on the news, when they log into their social media accounts, and when they are having everyday discussions with their friends and peers. It would be awkward for "SNL" to avoid politics and the election completely, of course, but most of the weekly show is swallowed up political harping especially leaning in favor of the left. It is the writers’ and the casts’ duty on a show like "SNL" to keep content if not somewhat neutral, at least factual. They must think about their viewers who have differing views than they do, and at least make an effort to try to connect with the other side of the spectrum. I think viewers of "SNL" and other similar shows are watching to escape the bombardment and confrontation that they face on a daily basis about the election and politics in general. If the cast really wants to voice their political opinions, they can do so on their own personal Twitter accounts, or perhaps they could even write an Odyssey article about it.
