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It’s been a long time since Saturday Night Live earned appointment television status, seeing as it has turned into another unfunny leftist propaganda machine alongside similar humorless shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. While the recently indicted Alec Baldwin’s sketches captured a small slice of former President Trump’s personality, they were so vicious and lacking in subtlety that they just felt like someone at the Democratic National Committee put on an orange wig and tried their hand at comedy.
True to form, the show continues to studiously avoid poking fun at easy targets like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, incomprehensible word salad aficionado Kamala Harris, and gravity-challenged Joe Biden. Once again their coveted cold open slot targeted someone who hasn’t been in office for over two years: former president Donald Trump. (There was also the bizarre pot-loving opening monologue by actor Woody Harrelson, but I’ll leave that to someone else.)
Watch, if you have nothing else to do:
Former President Trump addresses residents of East Palestine, Ohio following this month’s train derailment pic.twitter.com/3VjKqe081Y
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 26, 2023
Now, I’m happy to give credit where credit’s due, and cast member James Austin Johnson does a pretty good job impersonating The Donald, credibly portraying his speech patterns and mannerisms. There are a couple of funny lines, but mostly it’s kind of mundane.
The problem here is not that the show would dare to mock Trump: I welcome comedy shows that make fun of people in power. No, the problem is that SNL is giving the middle finger to half the country by refusing to make fun of the current people running the government. Yes, there have been a couple of Biden and Kamala skits over the past several years, but none of been particularly memorable and they haven’t assigned an actor of Baldwin’s stature to regularly portray Bumbling Joe.
For those of you who remember the ‘70s, then-President Gerald Ford—a former standout U of Michigan football player and athlete—tripped on occasion. SNL did not hold back, and produced some of the most legendary comedy in television history while making a superstar out of Chevy Chase:
Joe Biden has now fallen twice trying to climb the stairs of Air Force One—but did Saturday Night Live lead with that? Nope.
Pete Buttigieg just showed up to a toxic chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio in designer shoes. Did they lead with that? Nope. Kamala Harris regularly delivers child-like speeches that boggle the mind. Would one of them have made a funny cold open?
Nope. It’s Trump again.
SNL opens with Donald Trump yet again.
As we reported at @OutKick recently, SNL has included Joe Biden in its skits just 7 times since he became president in 2021. And only once since Oct.
SNL is afraid to make fun of Biden, despite the golden fodder.https://t.co/7SYnyZviNZ
— Bobby Burack (@burackbobby_) February 26, 2023
The problem with Saturday Night Live is that it long ago became another corrupt institution. Where once they would skewer anyone or anything, now they focus solely on a liberal, leftist audience and have abandoned the millions of people who would like to see all sides jeered equally.
Not surprisingly, SNL’s ratings have plummeted, and rarely is the show the highlight of water-cooler talk or the subject of viral videos. Perhaps this is why so many viewers tune into Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld show, which is open about its right-leaning stance—but is actually funny.
I was lucky enough to attend a taping of SNL in 1978 when I was just a young lad, and the Blues Brothers made their debut. I felt like I was watching history.
On the rare occasion when I tune into the show now, it feels like I’m simply watching decay.
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