There aren’t that many true institutions in television. It’s arguably the most American medium in its endless pursuit of the new, which means that only the most loved shows go over five seasons, only a handful make it to ten, and a tiny, tiny percentage last as long as “Law & Order,” “The Simpsons” or “Gunsmoke.” This arguably makes “Saturday Night Live” the single greatest American TV institution.
For 42 seasons (and 41 seasons of people saying that it isn’t as good as it used to be), it has launched careers (Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig, among others), spawned catchphrases and spin-offs, and provided watercooler discussion material. Even today, in its fifth decade, it’s still enormously popular — Saturday night’s episode was only beaten by “The Big Bang Theory” in terms of an audience in the key demographic in the past week. But the numbers aside, the show may never have held as important a place in the cultural conversation than right now. And it’s about time, because it has some making up to do.
Since the very beginning, politics and ‘SNL’ have gone hand in hand — Chevy Chase’s clumsy Gerald Ford impression was one of the things that made him a star. Subsequent impersonations of presidents or candidates — Dana Carvey doing George H.W. Bush, Will Ferrell playing his son (which proved so popular that he brought the character to Broadway), Tina Fey as Sarah Palin — they didn’t just effectively satirize their subjects, they sometimes played a huge part in defining the public’s perception of them, for better or for worse.
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In the Obama era, the show often struggled to find its political voice. Partly because, like most good art in the world, it was created by liberals, who were very much in the tank for the president. Partly because, bafflingly in the 21st century, Obama was initially played by a darkened-up Fred Armisen, who is of part Venezeulan, part Japanese/German heritage (anyone complaining that political correctness caused our current situation might have forgotten this). But mainly because Obama, unlike Bill Clinton as lascivious good old boy, Hillary as ambition-driven maniac, or Al Gore as wonkish bore, frustrated attempts to find a comic type to fit him in: he was too eminently reasonable for that (indeed, the best Obama sketches, like Key & Peele’s “Anger Translator” or SNL’s own “The Rock Obama,” often revolved around his ability to stay calm in the face of everything.
In the horrifying alternate universe in which we’ve accidentally found ourselves, in which failed steak salesman Donald Trump is the presidential figurehead to a group of billionaires, cronies and actual fascists, ‘SNL’ has no such problem with material. Trump was a figure of fun of the show long before he entered (and broke) politics, first being impersonated back in 1988 and popping up occasionally either as a character or occasionally as himself (he hosted for the first time in 2004, during the heyday of his game show “The Apprentice”). As the least presidential candidate for president in history, he provided plenty of grist for the mill throughout the trainwreck of a campaign (with Alec Baldwin stepping in this season to play Trump), and even more in the two endless weeks since he took office.
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It’s a unique situation in a number of respects, in part because he’s the first president to have hosted (during his campaign, no less), something that brought, rightly, a storm of condemnation to Lorne Michaels and his show. Presidential candidates had hosted before — Republican candidate Steve Forbes in 1996, presumably after someone else cancelled, Rev. Al Sharpton in 2004 — but in both cases they were all but fringe candidates, attracting a small percentage of the votes and never looking likely winners.
Trump, whatever some thought of him, always seemed like a threat, and always had terrible and terrifying opinions. And having him host on November 8, 2015 exactly (and fatefully) a year before he won office — in a disgracefully tepid, toothless episode that feinted at speaking truth to power but in fact only flattered it — did much to normalize a candidate who was far, far worse and more dangerous than the rest of the GOP field.
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What may have exacerbated the disappointment was that there was so little indication of internal resistance from the otherwise talented cast of the show. In 1990, cast member Nora Dunn refused to perform on an episode hosted by misogynist comedian Andrew Dice Clay (and was essentially fired as a result), and in 1996, musical guests Rage Against The Machine attempted to protest Forbes’ appearance, but for Trump, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Kenan Thompson, Colin Jost, Vanessa Bayer, a guest-starring Larry David, singer Sia and all the interchangeable white dudes raised no public objections to Trump appearing. In fairness, their contracts might have forbidden it, but it still felt like a double stain on the ‘SNL’ name.
It was a major low point in the show’s history, and one that it might never have escaped from. Indeed, for many it never escaped that shadow. But ‘SNL’ is at least attempting to make amends, and that’s important, because the show’s role in culture right now is unique in its history for another reason, beyond the ‘President’ being a former host: the ‘President’ is a devoted watcher of the show too.