Every weekend we here at Slate try to present you with the best sketches from Saturday Night Live: the funniest or most socially or politically relevant humor from some of America’s finest comedians. Usually, it’s a tough choice—but not this week, because the staff of Saturday Night Live took dead aim at Donald Trump, using all of its considerable brainpower to attack his legitimacy, from his white supremacist policies to his long trail of failed businesses and ruined lives. Watch above as … wait. Something’s wrong: This sketch stars Trump. Why would he participate in his own comedic evisceration? And the premise seems to be “a Trump presidency will be surprisingly great?” Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?
What’s more, there’s sort of a meta-premise here that’s even worse: Being booked on something like Saturday Night Live must mean he’s a normal participant in our political process. This skit gives the distinct impression he’s the kind of man who can laugh at himself, equally at home yukking it up with Jimmy Fallon or giving us a bit of the ol’ soft shoe. You could vote for someone like that, right? Anyway, it’s a good thing NBC didn’t grant Trump this kind of unearned legitimacy or free publicity until after the election. Otherwise, who knows what might have happened!
