I approach every season of “Saturday Night Live” the same — this is going to be the year with the greatest social commentary since the 1980s.
And recently, I’m let down.
But — and that’s a big but — every four years when a presidential election rolls around, I am not disappointed because the “SNL” players are provided with rich material to guide an entire season of good parodies and sketch comedy.
And 2016 is going to be the best presidential election year yet for this.
I ask you, my fellow Americans, to draw on a time when there was a presidential candidate of a major party that easily provided as much comedic material by simply being alive as Donald Trump?
Oh, you can’t?
Me neither.
That’s precisely why this season of “SNL” is going to be the best yet — we have Trump.
But we also have Hillary Clinton, who provides plenty of material for the writers of the show. The cold open featured Kate McKinnon as Clinton and invited Alec Baldwin to play Trump, and it was spot-on.
The show left most of the political commentary there, but it did pop up in Margot Robbie’s opening monologue as she fact-checked herself throughout it.
Her success didn’t stop there, though. Each sketch she was part of, including a “Family Feud” sketch where she played Ivanka Trump, she hit the nail on the head.
Weekend Update provided another platform to allow “SNL” to catch up on all the political commentary it missed over the summer. Throughout the episode, Leslie Jones continued to steal the show.
This episode was the perfect balance of politics and culture, never relying too heavily on the easy material provided by this particular election but never shying away from tackling politics just as hard as it should.
“SNL” provides America with the therapy and relief it needs during an election season.
Whenever you ask yourself, “Wait, did Trump really just say that?” all you’ll have to do it wait until Saturday night and trust “SNL” will show you, yes, he really, really did.
Thanks “SNL,” I know with you all of us will make it through November now.
allmwagn@indiana.edu
@allisonmwagner
