That was the cold open on "SNL" last night. Nice job, and I appreciate that the players — who had to freeze into a tableau at one point and remain frozen — quite professionally held the pose and resisted cracking up. James Austin Johnson, as Trump, had some funny lines — like the one I quoted above — and the players did not devolve into the old "Not Ready For Prime Time" raggedness — which was great in its day.
Lin-Manuel Miranda showed up — to play Hamilton — and he froze into the tableau along with all the others and committed to holding the pose. I think it was planned that he — and he alone — would crack up at a specific point — but that point does not arrive until the players have held the pose for 4 whole minutes, with "Trump" cracking jokes the whole time.
Trumpers and anti-Trumpers — did anyone not like that?
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SNL is so far down the "to watch" list that I think about it only when AA mentions it.
LMM’s “Hamilton” was a work of pure American genius. The way he condensed that giant Chernow book was beyond remarkable. And for those that don’t know, he wrote parts of “Hamilton” inside Alexander’s former NYC home.
"SNL is so far down the "to watch" list..."
I don't stay up to watch it. It's on far too late and I won't put up with the commercials. But SNL puts everything up on YouTube, and it's there when I get up, which is very early in the morning. I check to see what's there and decide which bits to watch and which to blog. I've blogged 3 clips at this point, but I also checked out a couple others and bailed early on.
New writers?
SNL is Lucy with the football for me. I've had it yanked too many times. Even if a skit now might be witty, I'm not willing to tee up anymore.
I laughed some. This Trump impersonation was softer than Baldwin's and actually played around with Trump's willingness to teeter on the edge of self mockery.
I’m in the ‘if AA blogs it’ camp, except for the classic skits and openers, that are certainly replayable. I think the Nate Bargatze Washington skit is one of the best in recent years. But I’m pleased that they are getting a bit better with the Trump skits.
SNL's been trying to imitate itself for about 45 years. Not going well.
I find the whole thing insipid an unwatchable.
I don't watch any SNL beyond the occasional clip someone posts. This opening was funny and even-handed enough.
Perpetuating the Elon Musk salute lie wasn't funny or witty. A clever take would have been to point out the ridiculousness of that charge. A founding father could have been making a sweeping arm gesture, and Trump warned him that NPR may decide he's a Nazi.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/01/a_breathtaking_first_week.html
I agree. Funny thing is Nate did not write it, and it did not go over well in rehearsal and was going to be cut.
Okay. Curiosity piqued. I’ll have to look into it. I have enjoyed these founding fathers skits that follow the classic call and response joke format. Look up “Robin Williams on golf” if you don’t get the reference and watch the longest clip you can find. Worth every second!
I watched the skits last week. From the headline quote and the “Hamilton” costumes, I think I see the intended joke, but it would fall flat with me. Yes, men used to wear wigs and their clothing for the era would feel more feminine in today’s culture. Yet on that latter item, that’s the point. If you see that clothing as feminine today, then you are being just as sexist as the people you are attempting to ridicule.
Also, Trump isn’t opposed to lesbians and gays. Indeed, he is his supporters are against the progressive attempts to sterilize lesbians and gays as minors by convincing them they are really straight but transexual. Trump supporters want adults to stay out of the business of manipulating the sexual preferences of minors. And they are against promoting those wanting to manipulate sexual preferences to leadership roles via DEI.
I watched SNL last night only because Timothee Chalamet was the host and musical guest. (I wanted to see him sing Dylan songs). Cold open reminded me of another SNL colonial skit called "Revolutionary War". It was one of their best. It was the night before the Eagles Patriots Super Bowl game. Rachel Dratch came back to join the Boston colonists and Tina Fey joined the Philadelphia colonists.
The real Trump is funnier than these guys
I appreciated that the joke involving Barron Trump wasn't really a mean joke and just a oh look Barron is really tall joke.
The Pull Out Method. 🤣
I agree. I think the SNL member does a really great job impersonating Trump too. But the real Trump has more playfulness in his demeanor, and a confident calmness about him. I still remember that one State of the Union where all the Democratic women were wearing their little white outfits for some reason or another, and they went in with set plan to be unhappy and disapproving of Trump and his speech, but he had them all smiling during the speech.
Q: what should Mr. and Mrs. Kak Sr. have employed in teh back seat of the Yugo all those years ago?
While I am against censoring them, the anti-Jew sentiments in this site's comments are ruining things for me. How could any normal person turn our host's post about an SNL skit into an attack on Jews by first mentioning the Israeli hostages and then by conflating Israel with Jews? I won't even mention the other active commenter who blames Jews for everything regardless of the topic. Our host never addresses these sentiments, and other commenters do so only very rarely. So, I will: Please stop. It is boring. And uncivil.
Yep. I never watch it "live" or otherwise. I prefer anything else, or good old fashioned --- sleep.
Its great that SNL can mock a President again. Biden got treated with kid gloves, and Obama was treated with reverence. Lorne Michels only attacked Obama's critics.
The left blur the lines - to keep people fearful. Trump does not hate homosexuals.
What we do hate is the sexualization of children, the the child abuse behind the left's vile gender dysphoria movement. Normal people don't want men in girls private spaces. etc... But the left - pushed into a corner on this stuff - LIE.
As for the SNL clip, good performance. Couple jokes were funny. Went 2 minutes too long. Better than usual. Of course, thats always been the problem with SNL.
Was rewatching some of the 70s SNL on DVD during christmas break. Let my daughter watch some it, but she didn't last long, too "old school" for her. But amazing how uneven it was. Terrible sketches that come in last 30 minutes, and dreary hosts like Hugh Hefner, Mishma Spillman, Robert Klein, and other movie starts.
Not to mention Lorraine Newman and Garrett Morris who were only good as support. Even the Good ol' days weren't that good.
You're correct about Larraine Newman- I can't remember anything she did that was memorably funny, but certainly Morris doing the news for the hard of hearing was hilarious- uncharacteristically brief, to the point, and poked fun at the wokeness of the day.
It’s comforting to know Althouse offers up her blog as a “Davenport of Love” for those commenters who act out while writing their nonsense. It’s as if Althouse is offering a Community/Public service for those who are in need.
I can’t imagine Iman acts like this while in public or surrounded by friends and family.
Mental illness affects so many people these days. It’s unfortunate Iman has not found effective treatment.
Morris had a few good moments. The two that most surprised me in rewatching were Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray. Those two had incredible range, and created a large number of funny characters. I remembered the Belushi Samuari sketches as being funnier than they are, most of them are just one-joke bits that go on way too long. And even when you allow for the dated material, the SNL Mock News with Chase and Curtain are death warmed over.
By a mile. Effortlessly.
Here's the thing. Due to mergers, our TV channels are all owned by mega-billion dollars corporations. So, SNL can bump along with low ratings, and the owners dont really care. "We don't care, we don't have to" is no longer the Lilly Tomlin phone company. Its ABC/NBC/CBS.
It’s time for coprophagy!
Here comes Kak!
Normal people don't want men in girls private spaces. etc...
You mean like entering the dressing room of Miss Teen U.S.A. ?
They're morons. Between Roy Cohn and hanging out at Steve Rubell's Studio 54 in the 70s, Trump came of age as friendly to gays as any US president. The only exceptions might be Obama, who was technically a Baby Boomer, but more like a child of a subsequent generation, and JFK who had Lem Billings following him around everywhere. Maybe James Buchanan, too.
Morris wasn't a comedian or a comic. He was a multi-talented actor-singer-playwright. In a sense, he was a "diversity hire." Lorne Michaels didn't know or was afraid to ask any other black performers. That didn't mean he wasn't highly qualified, but his qualifications didn't fit the show or make him a good match for the rest of the cast. He was a very talented individual who ended up out of place. Still, Chico -- "Baseball... been berra berra good... to me" -- Escuela was memorable, if rather one note.
Laraine Newman was the youngest cast member. She was only 22, inexperienced, and the only West Coaster, so she was largely relegated to straight or supporting roles.
I was up late waiting for my wife to return from her Burns Night party, and noticed that SNL was new, with Chalamet, so I watched about the first half-hour.
I missed the first minute of the opening, but the rest of it was pretty good; the sketches following were all over the place, and I baled after the Oedipus bit.
Did not see Chalamet sing, but I know where to look.
Loved it.
Now there will be a transsocial and transgender spectrum. Some nights are lonely.
This one about Medical Podcasting was also pretty good:
https://x.com/i/status/1883393130294095911
Thi has to mean Vivian Wilson Wont be able to visit white house to visit her dad(from what we understand she wouldnt really want to visit him anyway..Thats cold man
I saw the Saturday Night movie the other day. Good! Not laugh out loud funny but it was pretty dramatic with a ticking clock.
News for the Hard of Hearing !
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