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By Dr. Jeffrey Jones, Peabody Awards Executive Director
In the fourth episode of Saturday Night Live’s debut season in 1975, comedian Chevy Chase began portraying President Gerald Ford (without looking or sounding anything like him) in a series of pratfall sketches that would come to define both men, the latter in a distinctly negative light (which Chase admits was intentional because Ford was an unelected president). Thus began SNL’s mining of politics for comedy, a tradition that not only has spanned the show’s 50-year run but is perhaps one of its most prominent and defining features as America’s premier late-night comedy program and one of the longest running shows in television history.
Which makes the largely absent reference to this long history of political comedy in last week’s 50th anniversary special deeply perplexing. Indeed, more than any other entertainment show, SNL has played a major cultural role in defining politicians and political events for many Americans through entertainment television. The show’s political influence has potentially been the most powerful when it has helped define (and ridicule) political actors that Americans knew little about—from Ford, who was elevated to the presidency via the Watergate scandal, to vice presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Tim Walz.
In celebrating SNL’s 50th anniversary, there has been no shortage of retrospectives of the show’s iconic political sketches. Often these articles have highlighted the portrayals of presidents and presidential candidates: Chase as bumbling Ford, Dan Ackroyd as whip smart Jimmy Carter, Phil Hartman as secret mastermind Ronald Reagan as well as voracious and insatiable Bill Clinton, Dana Carvey as nerdy George H.W. Bush, Will Ferrell as lexically challenged dim-bulb George W. Bush, and Alec Baldwin as diabolical and self-serving Donald Trump.
SNL has won three Peabody Awards, the first in 1990 honoring the show’s 15th year on the air, a show that had transformed from a risky gamble by NBC into a cultural mainstay and consistent revenue generator for the network. The program went on to win two more awards, both for its political sketches. The first for satire came in 2008 for its portrayals, in particular, of Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, and again in 2017, for its caricatures of Donald Trump and the political actors that comprised his administration (press secretary Sean Spicer), alliances (Vladimir Putin), and appointments (Brett Kavanaugh, Jeff Sessions).
As we enter the second term of a Trump presidency, we revisit some of the political sketches that defined his first term and the insights they offer not only into the norm-shifting nature of a quite-unusual presidential administration, but also the media and cultural landscape that undergirds it all.
‘Election Night’
Trump’s election over Hillary Clinton came as an absolute shock to many white Democrats. But SNL took advantage of host Dave Chappelle’s timely presence the weekend following the election by bringing back former cast member Chris Rock to point out to viewers that through the eyes of Black Americans, electing Donald Trump was absolutely no surprise. The joke here is squarely on urban white liberal voters and their disconnect from the nation’s history with racism and misogyny, while simultaneously critiquing the intellectual arrogance that can mistake aspirational desire (for a first female president) from political and cultural reality.
‘Sean Spicer Press Conference’
The typical engagement that had existed between the Washington press corps and an administration’s press secretary in White House press briefings, as historically contentious as they could be at times, became something almost unrecognizable with the arrival of a highly combative and belligerent Trump press secretary, Sean Spicer. SNL brought in guest actor Melissa McCarthy to cross dress as Spicer, fully engaging her physical comedy skills to portray Spicer as a norm-busting, patronizing, and reality-challenged secretary that would never stop short of beating the press (literally) into submission.
‘Black Jeopardy with Tom Hanks’
Just who are Trump supporters? As noted in the first clip above, many white liberals—which likely includes many of the show’s actors, writers, producers and viewers—aren’t always sure. SNL brought on guest Tom Hanks to portray white Trump supporter “Doug” (wearing a red MAGA hat) as a participant on the show’s recurring skit “Black Jeopardy!” The skit brilliantly reminds us that the cultural differences between poor whites (which Hanks is clearly playing here) and Blacks may not be as immense as politicians and the media like to portray. But when primed and mobilized with particular ideological language, those differences can quickly become pronounced. Hanks reprised the role for last weekend’s 50th anniversary special, stoking ire from some conservative and liberal commentators alike.
‘Kavanaugh Hearing’
In the early 1990s, SNL produced a memorable skit about the U.S. Senate hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas, which had taken an unusual turn with the sexual harassment and misconduct accusations of Anita Hill against Thomas, for whom she had worked. The joke, in that instance, was on the all-white male senators, who demonstrated their white maleness (and enjoyment of pornography) more than their desire to locate the truth. In 2018, with another Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, accused of sexual impropriety (in this instance, sexual assault), the show brought on guest actor Matt Damon to portray a wildly unhinged Kavanaugh. As was also the case with Tina Fey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin in a 2008 interview with journalist Katie Couric, the skit dances back and forth between the bizarre reality of what was actually said publicly and great comedic writing that highlights the circus unfolding before our eyes.
‘Ingraham Angle’
Despite appearing on a “news” network, there are no bigger television supporters of Donald Trump and the ideological world of MAGA than the primetime hosts of Fox News. This includes Laura Ingraham, host of The Ingraham Angle on Fox. Cast member Kate McKinnon portrays Ingraham in a show cold-open focused on the Fox’s fear-inducing hyperbole about supposed millions of immigrants crossing the southern border, while Cecily Strong offers support in a hilarious portrayal of frequent Fox contributor Judge Jeanine Pirro. The skit captures not only the role that Fox News plays in offering a daily drumbeat of political rhetoric supportive of a particular ideology and political movement, but also how thoroughly Fox News has transformed the norms for what constitutes acceptable journalism and public affairs programming.