I'm republishing this diary from last night after just reading this article from the L.A. Times that expressed what I was attempting, but with more insight and expertise. So, read that article if you have to make a choice, as it ends with the word of my current title, "hate watching." This is what I will be doing when I watch the SNL event with Trump as host.
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Republished diary:
My first suggestion, since NBC looks like they are really going through with this is to suggest audience sabotage, using the Merriam Webster definition: "the act of destroying or damaging something deliberately so that it does not work correctly." No violence allowed, only that the audience who are there have an identification with the program. These people who sent in requests or where selected along Broadway, expect a certain sensibility, a cutting edge humor where the host is in on the game.
The vulnerability of SNL is that it is live, so the audience is part of the feed that is sent across the country. Normally, this works fine, and I would guess that the laughter is augmented, and there may be ways to completely switch to synthesized responses. Actually, I'm not sure about any of this. I wrote this earlier diary here that took a different angle about what being a host on SNL has meant down the decades, listing a number of them
Trump, is not there as a celebrity, as when he appeared previously. And the small cameo of Hillary last month excepted, no candidate for president has ever acted as a host on this program, When this originated in 1974 it was the essence of being cool, with it, cutting edge, sort of a protest against the norms of society.
It was for those who knew that the game was fixed, and looked forward to the SNL experience each week for a bit of release. For old timers it was John Belushi, and Chevy Chase-- ridiculing the awkwardness of President Ford. And of course Gilda Radner, who as Rosana Rosanadana gave her sincere plea to stop picking on "youth in Asia" only to be told that the problem was "euthanasia." Yeah, corny, but she pulled it off. When she and John died young it was like a death in the family, that we can still feel
Donald Trump is the reality underlying Daddy Warbucks of "Little Orphan Anne," or maybe "Mister Burns" Homer Simpson's conniving boss. His catch word is "Release the Hounds," like Trumps, "You're Fired." I could see him as a character developed by Andy Kaufman, such the lounge singer Tony Clifton who was his alter ego for years. Kaufman went to his grave never disclosing that character was really him.
What is Donald Trump going to do as he is announced and the applause swells? Is he going to rip off his wig and say, "Hey, guys, it's all been a joke, one that I started 40 years ago when I saw the first show here. Do you really believe that The Donald was real -- that anyone could be that crude and obnoxious and then want to be President?"
Well, that would work, but he's not going to do that. He will get his platform to maybe convince some regulars that he is one of them. I will record the program and watch it in an analytic vein, to see whether he acknowledges the contempt he has elicited and then tries to make it into a joke.
Steve Colbert played someone something like Trump for nine years, providing wicked satire since we were all part of the charade. Would we have been amused if that Colbert had been his real persona, of course not, then we could have gone on Fox and watched the real thing. When Trump was booed at this speech in Miami last month, he narrated the removal of the protesters. He first said, "It's just a few, and we do have freedom of speech" Then he brought up all the police to the stage, saying how he backed them. Finally he said, "O.K, don't be tough on them, but next time we will have to be more violent."
Is that the implied threat to anyone in the audience who protests, Trump style violence. Or will they stop the program, and come out and say it's been a terrible mistake. Trump is the anti-Saturday Night Live. He has the mentality that would have ordered the program off the air, as all tin horn rulers of banana republics who will deal with the world with bluster, threat and then violence.
From cutting edge risky programming with four decades of humor - some brilliant, others duds, this is what this legacy program has become. SNL is providing a platform for someone who resonates with the most simplistic of mentalities and deepest hatreds of our people, and with this appearance, bestowing their tacit endorsement.
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WaPo article on other appearances by politicians on the show.