"This order would reduce the number of interracial couples in TV commercials"/"Oh, it's just too many, right?"

"You see them in the kitchen together making meals from HelloFresh. He's wearing loafers, she's got tight braids. You're like: Where'd they meet, you know, what do they even talk about? It's insane."

Most of what is in that sketch has Trump signing orders with respect to things Trump has actually made an issue of his own, but I don't think he's ever seemed antagonistic toward interracial couples. I wonder how that made it into the sketch. And the line "He's wearing loafers, she's got tight braids" prompts us to picture the man as white and the woman is black, but the humor I've been hearing about these ads is that the man is always black and the woman is white. Anyway, the issue of interracial couples in TV commercials is a general topic for comedians these days. It's not connected to Trump, so it's rather scurrilous to throw this subject into the mix.

The world gave "SNL" some great material and "SNL" did not squander the opportunity. Enjoy the near perfection of "The White POTUS."

Why it's not complete perfection: 1. You need to have watched Season 3 of "The White Lotus" to get most of the jokes, 2. The joke about the watch is bad. It was like the old "moron" jokes of the 1960s — e.g., why did the moron throw his watch across the room?/He wanted to see time fly — and the idea that Eric Trump is a moron isn't worth spending time on. 

"I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Maybe not. Maybe not. Awesome. Awesome, awesome. You've got to make a joke. You know... legalize comedy! Legalize comedy! Come on, legalize it!"

"From now on, there will be two genders... And we're done with LGBT. No more drag. No more guys and wigs. No more whatever these guys were wearing."

"What a weird way to dress, right? A little zesty darling. I'm off to start America. Hand me my wig and my tights and my big blousy shirts."

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?

"Here comes Mr. Bob Dylan himself..."

The best part of this is how much James Austin Johnson looks like old Bob Dylan.

It's interesting that a woman plays Chalamet. That might have some verisimilitude, except that it made Chalamet much shorter than Dylan. In real life, Bob is 5'7" and Timothée is 5'10".

ADDED: Uproxx has an interview with James Austin Johnson about his Dylan imitation and links to this 2022 appearance on the Tonight Show where he sang "Jingle Bells" in Dylan voices from difference eras of Dylan:

James Austin Johnson sings “Jingle Bells” as Bob Dylan through the decades. #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/kuPegi5Dhw

— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) November 29, 2022

Easter cold open.

Meade's comment, on watching that with me: "You can tell from the audience's reaction that even though they want to be thought of as hating Trump, underneath they really... love Trump."

5 minutes later:

Me: "From the standpoint of not liking fruit."

Meade: "You forgot the raccoons."

Trump sneakers inspire "Saturday Night Live" to excellence.

"Saturday Night Live" collaborates with Nikki Haley and it's embarrassing.

Even the Trump impersonator guy is off:

“I see dead people.” That’s exactly what voters will think if this race is between Trump and Biden in the fall.

Had a blast tonight on SNL! Know it was past Donald’s bedtime so looking forward to the stream of unhinged tweets in the a.m. pic.twitter.com/W43LlPOoi2

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 4, 2024

Will "I see dead people" earn a visit from the Secret Service? Or is it suitably nonthreatening to passively gaze at old people and visualize them at the end of a natural life span?

The James Austin Johnson impersonation of Donald Trump is so good they must be worried it will...

... transcend the defenses of the "SNL" audience and cause them to bond with the man they think they need to hate.

On "SNL," Trump makes an appearance at the Republican debate.

Good impressions. Who was that "eggo" Trump kept talking about, the cast-member playing Vivek Ramaswamy? That was Ego Nwodim (a woman).

I thought that was a very well-written cold open. The Trump impersonator, James Austin Johnson, is so good they must worry he's going to cause the audience to kind of love Trump. We haven't faced such a risk since Charlie Chaplin impersonated Hitler.

Here's an article about Johnson, from last summer, in the Chicago Sun-Times. Johnson is opposed to Trump's political positions, but realized that, to do a successful impersonation, he needed to like something about Trump:

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

A new season of "SNL" begins — the cold open is all about the Democrats — and they've got a new guy playing Joe Biden.

 

I watched the whole thing and — maybe it's just me — I didn't find anything funny. The new Biden is James Austin Johnson. He doesn't look much like Biden and isn't leaning into making him ridiculous enough. The real Biden is already someone you can just watch and laugh at, so what are you going to do with it? 

 The second sentence of his very short Wikipedia page is: "He has garnered attention for his impression of former President of the United States Donald Trump, sometimes being referred to as 'the best Trump impersonator.'"

He doesn't just get attention. He garners it! 

Okay, so maybe this Biden impersonation is a fake out until they get to what they hired him for. Check this out:

PRES TRUMP TODAY IN CALIFORNIA: " 'WEIRD AL' WAS VERY MEAN TO MR. COOLIO!! DIDN'T ASK FOR RIGHTS. NOT VERY NICE!" pic.twitter.com/kgF5UFYRLP

— James Austin Johnson (@shrimpJAJ) October 18, 2020

How will they do debates if their Trump guy is also their Biden guy? I guess they're planning to worry about that when the time comes. It's really not too likely that Trump and Biden will ever debate each other again, but that would be far down the road. There will be years of running up to the primaries, with Democrats fighting Democrats and Republicans against Republicans, and Biden probably won't make it to his party's 2024 nomination. Trump probably will. 

So good luck to James Austin Johnson — with his Biden and his Trump. He does have a big problem looking like either of them, what with his huge nose. You can fake a large nose on a comedian with a small nose, but you can't fake small out of large. You have to rely on raw talent.