Donald Trump was not amused by this week’s edition of Saturday Night Live, which featured an opening sketch that skewered his performance in last Sunday’s presidential debate. Portrayed by Alec Baldwin, Trump stalked Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton about the stage, glowering and interrupting her. Later in the show, the women of SNL parodied Beyonce’s Lemonade, turning it into a song about Trump’s treatment of women. The Republican presidential nominee called the episode a “hit job,” insisting that the sketch comedy show is just another cog in a wide-ranging media conspiracy against him.
Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me.Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
Trump’s reaction to the episode led a former SNL writer, Mike Schur, to share his memories on Twitter under his Ken Tremendous handle. Unsurprisingly, the real estate mogul was a handful while hosting the show in 2004. According to Schur, Trump reacted angrily at the suggestion that he should poke fun at himself during his opening monologue, something that almost all hosts do. When Trump read a draft of his speech, which prompted him to make fun of his own dealings in Atlantic City, he grew visibly angry and stopped the read-through. “Hard to explain how lame it was,” the writer tweeted. “Every host pokes fun at his/her biggest news story. Rob Lowe did a whole monologue about his scandal. It’s the whole point of going on the show, sometimes. But not Donald. He had zero sense of humor.”
Here’s the entirety of Schur’s tweetstorm on the subject.
1. Quick Trump story, w/r/t how thin-skinned he is, in light of him attacking SNL. I worked there as a writer when he hosted in 2004.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
2. That week there were rumblings about his Atlantic City casinos going bankrupt (again). So the writers did what we always do.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
3. Made jokes about it. In monologues, and a couple other sketches. *Very* minor. And they were for internal use only — read-through jokes.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
4. Like, these would never see the light of day. Every host has to make fun of his/her "thing." So, in the read-through, he read one.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
5. People laughed, because we wanted to show him it was all in good fun. He did not laugh. He glowered. And stopped the read-through.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
6. He stared around the room. And he said, "You listen to me, okay? That deal is gonna be a great deal. I'm gonna win big on that deal."
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
7. "You don't understand this deal, but I do, and it's gonna be great. And when it's over, I'm gonna come out way ahead."
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
8. (This is a paraphrase, based on elapse of time, but it was essentially that.)
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
9. Everyone got real quiet. The woman next to me rolled her eyes. We all felt like, "Okay, guess he doesn't want to joke around. *On SNL.*"
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
10. Then he paused, still angry, and went back to the read-through.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
11. Hard to explain how lame it was. Every host pokes fun at his/her biggest news story. Rob Lowe did a whole monologue about his scandal.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
12. It's the whole point of going on the show, sometimes. But not Donald. He had zero sense of humor. He was furious.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
13. Such thin skin. So humorless. It's far from the best reason not to vote for him. But the psychology at work is upsetting. Sad.
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 16, 2016
