The Gist

Why Trump Wasn’t Funny on SNL

Today’s Spiel attempts to bring meaning to the shambles that was Donald Trump hosting Saturday Night Live.

Donald Trump’s opening monologue on Saturday Night Live on Nov. 7, 2015 in New York.

Photo by Dana Edelson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Listen to Episode 374 of Slate’s The Gist:

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On The Gist, a show about art and prostitutes up now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Wall Street Journal’s Mary M. Lane will share her highlights from “New Objectivity: Modern German Art in the Weimar Republic, 1919–1933” on display through Jan. 18, 2016. For the Spiel, Mike explains why Donald Trump on SNL was aggressively unfunny.

Meeting of Fetishists and Manaical Flagellants, circa 1921, by Rudolf Schlichter, from the LACMA show.

Painting by Rudolf Schlichter, copyright Viola Roehr v. Alvensleben, photo by Christian Wirth via LACMA.

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