The cold open to SNL‘s premiere hit on President Trump’s response to the Puerto Rico disaster, but the show saved its sharpest cuts for later in the show with Michael Che and Weekend Update. The long-running segment kicked off by discussing Puerto Rico, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, and Trump’s string of head-scratching comments about the hurricane recovery efforts in the U.S. territory. While Colin Jost got the sillier moments of the segment, joking that Trump is using a map full of sea monsters to get a feel for where Puerto Rico is located and what surrounds it, Che just took all the anger folks were likely feeling backstage and online and just broadcast directly to the national audience.
Che’s words were definitely something you’ve likely read online at one point or another in reference to the president, but hearing them on SNL carries a little extra weight and continues the more critical tone against the president and his administration that the show started during its last season — partly it is in response to having Trump host one year prior. Che takes one of the top replies you’d see to a Trump tweet and brings it to TV:
“Oh, really, Donald, you bitch? Was she nasty to you? How nasty? Are you shaking? You want to go smoke a Virginia Slim until your hand stops moving?
“This isn’t that complicated, man. It’s hurricane relief. These people need help. You just did this for white people, twice. Do the same thing. Go tell Melania to put on her flood heels, get some bottled water, some food. Pack up some extra Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl T-shirts. And write them a check with our money, you cheap cracker.”
We doubt there has ever been a president that has been called a “cheap cracker” on national television, but this could also be considered an updated version of Kanye West’s comments about George W. Bush during a benefit telethon for Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Even if that’s a lofty statement, it’s clear that the show wants to distance itself from its past treatment of the president and firmly stay critical from here on.
https://twitter.com/8675309Carson/status/914343575311155201
(Via SNL)