The reviews of Donald Trump hosting SNL are in, and they are not good for the Republican pretender candidate, or the show.
Yahoo TV’s Ken Tucker
delivered a painful blow by blow recap of Trump’s appearance and
concluded, “Turns out, this really was just a craven move for ratings.
There was no attempt by Lorne Michaels and company to use Trump as a
critique of himself, no moment that did not feel vetted by the
candidate.”
Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club
was blunt in his review of the show as an unfunny and watered down
platform for Trump, “In the end, the episode was as inoffensive as the
writers and Trump’s advisors could make it—without being funny. Whatever
their political views, viewers looking for a good episode of SNL didn’t
get one. Trump supporters can fob off their disappointment in the
quality of the show on cast and writers, but only the most blinkered
could deny that the candidate came off as stilted, bland, and unprepared
in the very little screen time he was given. (Someone has calculated
his total on-screen appearance at 12 minutes, which actually sounds a
little high.) I’m trying to think of another host in SNL history who was
so shielded during the course of their episode, and, given his leaden
timing and lack of commitment in the live sketches he did appear in,
even Trump fanatics must have been relieved at how little he was given
to do.”
The Wrap’s Daniel Holloway delivered
a big picture view of how far the SNL franchise has fallen, “What
Michaels got for his trouble was an episode that will probably end up
being the most talked-about of this season, but for all the wrong
reasons. Nobody who watched Trump host the show in 2004, or who knows
good comedy, or who has two working eyes and basic motor skills, tuned
into this episode because he or she expected it to be good. And it was
not….Every time Michaels does this — every time he invites someone onto
“SNL” whom the show would be better off skewering, every time he tones
things down to accommodate a guest of significant power and
significantly offensive worldview — he takes the show farther and
farther away from its radical roots.”
SNL worked with a presidential campaign to water down their show to
accommodate Donald Trump. The concept itself is offensive to what SNL
used to be. A program that used to be cutting edge pimped itself out for
a cheap ratings grab.
I hope Lorne Michaels is happy with the few extra viewers that Trump
brought in because he alienated millions of younger viewers by giving
Trump’s bigoted views a national platform or what is supposed to be a
comedy show.
It turns out that Trump isn’t good at politics or comedy.
Egomaniacal racism and bigotry are not funny. Trump is a
mainstream media creation, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the
ultimate mainstream network show would pander to the billionaire.
Trump bombed and took SNL down with him.
