Althouse: SNL's new Donald Trump, James Austin Johnson, is fantastic!

November 7, 2021

SNL's new Donald Trump, James Austin Johnson, is fantastic!

73 comments:

rhhardin said...: It all looks lame to me.; 11/7/21, 6:23 AM
gspencer said...: A new Donald Trump? So unnecessary. Baldwin the Gunslinger had DT down cold.; 11/7/21, 6:27 AM
David Begley said...: Best Trump ever! That I can tell you!; 11/7/21, 6:51 AM
rehajm said...: What’s the gibberish they’re using as a substitute for science this morning?; 11/7/21, 6:52 AM
Jon Burack said...: The Donald Trump guy is indeed terrific. The rest of the SNL show shown in this clip (that is, the parts I could bear to watch) were as funny as a sledge hammer on my skull.; 11/7/21, 6:53 AM
rehajm said...: I think it’s odd to be welcoming a new Donald Trump impersonator. Time moved on but SNL didn’t…; 11/7/21, 6:55 AM
tim maguire said...: Video unavailable
The uploader has not made this video available in your country.

Oh well, I’ll have to take your word for it, though I have no doubt he is better than Alec Baldwin—who completely failed to capture Trump and seemingly got the role because he’s Alec Baldwin and loves to play other people, even though he doesn’t do it well.; 11/7/21, 6:56 AM
Misinforminimalism said...: Who's going to tell them he's not actually the President anymore?; 11/7/21, 6:57 AM
Jaq said...: While he does do a great Donald Trump impression, the show is just Hannity for left wingers.; 11/7/21, 6:58 AM
Gunner said...: After the talent black hole of Alec Baldwin, anyone would be an improvement.; 11/7/21, 7:09 AM
wendybar said...: Way better than sniveling Baldwin. But alas, I still won't be tuning in.; 11/7/21, 7:09 AM
rehajm said...: Did you see where Camilla couldn’t stop talking about Biden breaking wind? Did SNL see that? No? Everyone likes good fart jokes. SNL could fill a cold open with an old man who is POTUS farting up a global leader reception. But they didn’t…; 11/7/21, 7:14 AM
wendybar said...: And then I actually watched the whole thing, and once again Progressives are downing Americans who care about their kids and calling them uneducated rubes that don't know anything, and need the government to tell them how to live. So sick and tired of them. THEY are the dividers they complain about. FJB and F*CK them too.; 11/7/21, 7:39 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Fuck SNL.

The assholes(D) and NBC only mock the right. Fuck them all.; 11/7/21, 7:44 AM
Temujin said...: Still can't make it through one of these. It's such weak shit. Either I've gotten to old to get what's funny, or they're just not funny. Tedious is the word that comes to my mind.

I want to like it. I try to like it, but it's just tedious. Not surprising. Not original. Not funny. I keep looking for Gilda. No Gilda anywhere.; 11/7/21, 7:48 AM
Temujin said...: That said, the Trump guy was great.; 11/7/21, 7:49 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Biden's press-propagandist - Jen Psaki - she is vaccinated and she has covid.

Any mocking from SNL?; 11/7/21, 7:54 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Did the assholes(D) at NBC mock anyone on the left? for even a second?; 11/7/21, 7:55 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: and more than anything - FUCK the White Left.; 11/7/21, 7:56 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: Sorry. Not in the mood. Seemed lame. How’s their Biden? Headed for the showers is he? Whisper, whisper, whisper.; 11/7/21, 8:01 AM
Sebastian said...: "SNL's new Donald Trump, James Austin Johnson, is fantastic!"

Who's Trump? I thought Joe R. Biden was president. Surely they focus on his many risible foibles?; 11/7/21, 8:02 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Trump comes on a midway through and the whole thing changes. It's not just the actor. It's also the writing.; 11/7/21, 8:03 AM
Maynard said...: How big is the SNL audience these days compared to 30 years ago?; 11/7/21, 8:06 AM
Critter said...: I am surprised how SNL would parody the left’s views on COVID and Virginia parents so clearly. The main line on Aaron Rodgers, that the unvaccinated pose greater risks to others than the vaccinated is belied by the science and experiential data. Yet the left continues to parrot it apparently because it gives them a platform to criticize those who are concerned about the experimental therapy that is the jab. Fauci and his cabal even resorted to changing the definition of a vaccine to enable them to call the jab one. If the left were not pushing lies about matters of personal and public health their Rodgers skit would be cute. But it comes across as heavy-handed propaganda.

Their line on parents who object to their children being brainwashed with baseless lies about white people being evil because of the color of their skin is a complete rejection of MLK and his virtuous message that personal character matters, not skin color. How would the left react if schools taught that black children were inferior because of the color of their skin? We know that answer.

The left proves through its humor just how ignorant they are. Again, I’m surprised that they would parade their ignorance on national TV. They are apparently engaged in a modern version of the king has no clothes. Only the left can see the clothes and the rest of us are told we’re fools.; 11/7/21, 8:07 AM
Jaq said...: "It's not just the actor. It's also the writing."

Yeah, it almost seems like there is some sympathy for what makes Trump lovable to so many of us. Still, it was heavily outweighed by the nastiness of the early part of it. You might have made your point better if you can set up the link to start with the Trump stuff.; 11/7/21, 8:07 AM
wild chicken said...: Yes the new guy is good. It must be fun for the writers to riff on Trump's speaking style, once you've heard it enough.

Still there was something peculiarly funny about Baldwin doing Trump. You could feel the hate!

Rejahm is right, though. Nothing funnier than a fart joke. Everyone knows that.; 11/7/21, 8:12 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: The press and the leftwing Tech Oligarchs silenced Trump... But they cannot live without him. SNL should be non-stop Biden bashing. Does SNL think Trump is still president?; 11/7/21, 8:13 AM
Humperdink said...: I tried, I really tried. Just couldn't get through it.; 11/7/21, 8:16 AM
Chest Rockwell said...: That really is a great impression.

The rest of that skit though …. Boilerplate prog humor, which is to say boring and uninteresting.; 11/7/21, 8:18 AM
Rory said...: Has SNL "done" the Baldwin shooting? They did Claudine Longet 45 years ago.; 11/7/21, 8:24 AM
Mark said...: Still fixated and obsessed with Trump, eh?

Most people who don't plant their heads in the sands of the NYT, Washington Post, and progressive media have moved on. And they always understood that Trump was always only a means to an end. He was never considered a Savior-figure like Obama was promoted as.

There is no Trump cult, except in the fevered minds of the left. Trump's days have passed.; 11/7/21, 8:30 AM
Wince said...: Not sure Republicans winning in blue states campaigning on Trumpian platforms without Trump's help is the laughable bellwether the SNL writers hope it is.

Interesting question: is SNL "featured player" JAJ's Trump impression now the exclusive property of SNL and NBC?

Is JAJ still free to do his independent Trump material that is funnier, less pointed politically?; 11/7/21, 8:32 AM
Two-eyed Jack said...: The whole thing is a weird demonstration of Selena Zito's point.; 11/7/21, 8:34 AM
Mark said...: Compare and contrast.

Apply the Selena Zeto piece to SNL having a new Trump (who we are told is fantastic).; 11/7/21, 8:41 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Stiff. Trump is more feminine than that. Loose. Sly smiles.

Like watching a second-rate Nixon impersonation in the late Seventies.

I am Laslo.; 11/7/21, 8:43 AM
Gahrie said...: I am not amused. This is the best that SNL can do? It's sad what the left has done to what was once an American institution. Again.

I've finally figured out why you like SNL Althouse....you're into boring.; 11/7/21, 8:48 AM
Gahrie said...: People who didn't go to college

Ha Ha ha ..if you don't go to college you're stupid, and that's why you voted for Youngkin (and Trump) because you're stupid!

I couldn't contain my laughter!; 11/7/21, 8:50 AM
chuck said...: Either I've gotten to old to get what's funny, or they're just not funny.

Probably both. Has current humor gotten beyond the "bad words" shtick? I like clever, bad words aren't clever.; 11/7/21, 9:10 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: There is some interesting jiggery-pokery going on with the depiction of Rogers. They put dark circles around his eyes, I suppose to make him look ill. The last report I read said that Rogers is aymptomatic, but I suppose it would be off-message to both mock Rogers for testing positive for covid while depicting him as being perfectly healthy.; 11/7/21, 9:14 AM
Butkus51 said...: They have to go to their go to guy. Thats all they got.; 11/7/21, 9:15 AM
Balfegor said...: Re: Althouse:

Trump comes on a midway through and the whole thing changes. It's not just the actor. It's also the writing.

Yes . . . I had to skip ahead once they tried to set up a joke on the premise that Youngkin wouldn't be able to explain what people mean by "critical race theory" and why it's noxious to import that framework with grade school education.

But the Trump actor, and the monologue they wrote for him, was genuinely amusing. Not laugh out loud, but funny, with a good comic impersonation of Trump's distinctive voice.
Miles better than Alec Baldwin who -- I think -- was always partly the butt of the joke himself, chosen less for his acting skill than for the fact that he's a squinting, self-important blowhard, exactly like the Trump character he was expected to play.; 11/7/21, 9:18 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: SNL(D-NBC) have they ever mocked Hunter Biden?; 11/7/21, 9:19 AM
BoatSchool said...: I love these smug cultural elites looking down their noses at the (supposed) rubes in Virginia denying Terry McAwful is well-deserved white, WJC/HRC bag man privilege.

These people don’t have a clue why Youngkin won - which is nice.

Augurs well for the 2022 midterms.; 11/7/21, 9:20 AM
Ice Nine said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/7/21, 9:23 AM
Joe Smith said...: Johnson is waaaay better when he just does the Trump impressions on his Twitter feed.

It seems that he writes them himself and it's more spontaneous.

And it's distracting as hell that he doesn't look at all like Trump.

It's better when he's just wearing street clothes and you can concentrate on the voice and mannerisms...

A rare miss from the professor...; 11/7/21, 9:27 AM
wildswan said...: The political problem is that - at this point in time - if this were a bridge game no trump is trump. This is what SNL was getting at and it was humorous in a (to me) tiresome and long-winded way. But the political problem is also that the left cannot accurately describe the concerns of either rural voters or suburban parents as shown on this SNL clip and as, shown in Virginia, this is a majority. Who can this majority count on to fight for them?; 11/7/21, 9:32 AM
FleetUSA said...: Wet dream for coastal progs.; 11/7/21, 9:42 AM
Amexpat said...: Baldwin's impression made Trump out to be a dolt, which he isn't. This impression cleverly shows how Trump can shrewdly dominate a discussion by distractedly going off on long weird tangents, while slipping in some of the points he wants to make.; 11/7/21, 9:49 AM
Drago said...: Remember, to Althouse, there is little to nothing funny to be found in the Babylon Bee. But standard, run of the mill, heard a thousand times a day lefty/urban insults and political narratives against conservatives/republicans masquerading as "jokes" is to die for!

It's no wonder SNL's audience has been shrinking so precipitously over the last several years.

This years SNL opening only captured 4.9 million viewers, out of a population of 333 million.

As with Spinal Tap, SNL's appeal is becoming more and more "selective".

I hear SNL is incredibly popular with democratical and NeverTrump political consultants who help democraticals engage the general populace.............; 11/7/21, 9:50 AM
Drago said...: Can Of Cheese for Hunter: "SNL(D-NBC) have they ever mocked Hunter Biden?"

Like obama, Hunter is simply too wonderful to mock, besides, there isn't really any material there one could joke about. Hunter is just that pure.

Ask any member of The Lincoln Pedophile Project! They are happy to vouch for Hunter....and they are quite keen on the idea of parents showering with their children...................or so a little birdie told us recently via a diary.; 11/7/21, 9:52 AM
Big Mike said...: Everyone likes good fart jokes.

And they always have. The oldest known joke was inscribed in cuneiform on a clay tablet almost 4000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia. The knee slapper reads:

“Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap."

Yeah, I guess it’s all in the way you tell it.; 11/7/21, 9:57 AM
Drago said...: People who didn't go to college

Gahrie: "Ha Ha ha ..if you don't go to college you're stupid, and that's why you voted for Youngkin (and Trump) because you're stupid!

I couldn't contain my laughter!"

All those Washington DC suburban moms, who are "educated" (at the very least, credentialed) and saw precisely the CRT-based lessons shoved down their kids throats via zoom over the last 18 months, and after having voted for obama twice and for Hillary and Biden, decided they needed to vote for Youngkin to stop the democratical/Marxist/NeverTrump madness and so, Voila!

They are racist ignoramuses now! Just that fast! Why, they probably support the Confederacy too! And want to "put ya'll back in chains!".

Well played SNL. "Brave and courageous" is a term that clearly applies to this cutting edge "humor".

Of course, from a right of center perspective, this is all a good thing. The democraticals/NeverTrumpers accelerating their marxist insanity instead of pausing, it bodes well for 2022.; 11/7/21, 10:00 AM
BoatSchool said...: Did I miss the SNL skit of Terry McAwful’s concession speech, during which he “danced” hilariously and presented himself with so much makeup he looked like he’d just left a funeral coffin while his adoring audience of sophisticated people cheered ?

Oh, SNL didn’t perform that skit.

Guess Terry’s reality show that evening was so bad it simply couldn’t be mocked.; 11/7/21, 10:07 AM
AlbertAnonymous said...: That shtick on Aaron Rodgers was not funny at all. They couldn’t come up with anything other than “did you like me on jeopardy” and “state farm won’t even give me the Rodgers rate any more”? Ugh. And the typical anti-vaxxer, anti science leftist trope. Double ugh.

Pete Davidson must be a good writer because he’s been on the show a long time. But he sucks as an actor. Maybe he writes better for other people?

SNL hasn’t been funny for years. I keep hoping for a return to funny and a skewering of both sides of the aisle, but I think those days are gone.; 11/7/21, 10:27 AM
Breezy said...: Too bad SNL writers never matured enough to genuinely laugh at themselves and/or democrats in general. Sad. They are still doing that junior high cliquey schtick.

The Trump impersonator was just ok imho. Trump actually has a very quick wit, so the writing didn’t do him justice.; 11/7/21, 10:43 AM
Narayanan said...: what if Youngkin character had said CRT = parents should not be involved in their children education and then bring in the mother against Morrison book?

would have been nice consistent seque and exploded heads in audience; 11/7/21, 10:50 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Others have already pointed out what I wanted to say- Johnson here is kind of flat to me because he does a much better job imitating Trump without SNL's writing. Indeed, I recommended him here some time ago if one is looking for the best Trump impersonator.; 11/7/21, 10:55 AM
Narayanan said...: Gahrie said...
I am not amused. This is the best that SNL can do? It's sad what the left has done to what was once an American institution. Again.

I've finally figured out why you like SNL Althouse....you're into boring.
-----------
wait BORING is TM by Musk

more like ??professora is into boring us with her boring obsessions??; 11/7/21, 10:58 AM
Yancey Ward said...: And on Aaron Rogers- what is the big deal with his COVID positive test? He isn't sick, most of his teammates, if not all of them, are vaccinated. He probably caught the virus, if his test is even accurate, from a vaccinated teammate or family member- those are just the probabilities at work. In a week he will test negative if he hasn't already and that will be that.; 11/7/21, 10:58 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: Does SNL even have a Biden? If so, I wonder what percentage of SNL viewers could name his impressionist.; 11/7/21, 11:00 AM
effinayright said...: Hah HAH!!! That 's a red hot knee-slapper----if you are a apparently as snobby as Our Law Prof Hostess.

Can't you see her guffawing into her perfumed hanky, as those smelly Flyover country hicks and rubes are justly mocked?

Way to punch down, Althouse!!; 11/7/21, 11:12 AM
Wince said...: Try to explain this SNL sketch from last night...

Goober the Clown on Abortion

The SNL fan-girl comments say "brave." Maybe because Strong had an abortion at 23?

Didn't see much more than "clown" being a metaphor for "woman."; 11/7/21, 11:47 AM
Howard said...: It's always the writing.; 11/7/21, 12:52 PM
Iman said...: Fantastic! That’s what I’d mentioned when you had this guy in a post a month or so ago. Local radio guys had been talking about him for a while and had used him to send-off a colleague who was moving on.; 11/7/21, 1:32 PM
Iman said...: That bit is funny stuff!; 11/7/21, 1:39 PM
Iman said...: Now, if Lorne Michaels had the good sense - let alone stones - to hire Tom Shillue to do Joe Biden, he might double SNL’s ratings.; 11/7/21, 1:42 PM
joe said...: When does it get funny? SNL used to be able to make fun of ideologies - know they just use attempted humor to try to push an ideologies.; 11/7/21, 1:52 PM
Chris Lopes said...: That's certainly a more accurate impression than Alex Baldwin's, but not as funny. The humor in such things comes from an over the top (which in Trump's case is quite fitting) exaggeration of traits we all recognize. An on the spot, exact impression loses the humor so even drop dead funny material (which this most certainly wasn't) falls flat. The pandering to an exclusively Progressive world view doesn't help.; 11/7/21, 2:39 PM
Chris Lopes said...: "I hear SNL is incredibly popular with democratical and NeverTrump political consultants who help democraticals engage the general populace............."

May it ever be so.; 11/7/21, 2:47 PM
Lurker21 said...: I couldn't get past the lousy Jeanine Pirro imitation and the guy with the tattoos.

Maybe I'll try again sometime to see if James Weldon Johnson, or whatever his name is, is any good.

I do know that Johnson is also their new Biden guy, and that he has to be a better Trump impersonator than Alec Baldwin, who was basically just doing Alec Baldwin over and over again.; 11/7/21, 3:11 PM
Robert Cook said...: "Best Trump ever! That I can tell you!"

Nope! Not even close. The greatest personification of Trump on SNL was created by the brilliant Darrell Hammond. (His Clinton was also brilliant.); 11/7/21, 4:43 PM
Original Mike said...: Blogger Gahrie said...'People who didn't go to college'

"Ha Ha ha ..if you don't go to college you're stupid, and that's why you voted for Youngkin (and Trump) because you're stupid!
I couldn't contain my laughter!"

Yeah, that was pretty shitty.

I know they think like this, but I was surprised they'd say it out loud.; 11/7/21, 4:50 PM
PM said...: "If you ain't laughin', you ain't white."; 11/8/21, 1:38 PM