Brow Beat

Trump Appoints Breaking Bad’s Walter White to Head the DEA (According to Saturday Night Live)

Saturday Night Live got off to a rough start this week with a look at Trump’s latest horrifying proposed appointees: anti–Environmental Protection Agency EPA head Scott Pruit and anti-labor Secretary of Labor Andy Puzder (bonus: he’s also a misogynist!). The skit started fine; Kate McKinnon’s Kellyanne Conway is always funny, and she scored a laugh by promising that the new EPA head would protect us all from the environment. But the heart of the sketch was a guest appearance from Bryan Cranston, in character as Walter White from Breaking Bad, who will head the DEA under Trump.

If that sounds like an Andy Borowitz premise from about two weeks ago, that’s because—and there’s really no kinder way to say this—it was. Borowitz used El Chapo instead of Walter White, but it’s the exact same joke, plus a guest star and a few catch phrases from prestige cable. Saturday Night Live may not usually be avant-garde comedy or anything, but surely there were better places to take this. For starters, the incredibly expensive, destructive, and unsuccessful war on drugs is the one part of the federal government Duterte-fan Trump and his jackass minions are not going to dismantle. For another: stealing from Borowitz? Next week, ignore the siren song of the celebrity cameo and just tell us about the life and times of our next Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. I promise we’ll all laugh till we cry.

Correction, Dec. 12: This post originally misspelled Rodrigo Duterte’s last name.