Earlier today, a representative from Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign team let slip to Deadline that the presidential hopeful would be a making a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live this weekend to rib host Larry David about his Sanders impression. Though the comments were necessarily couched in the conditional tense in order to keep all surprises surprising (CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny said, “He has been invited… there are no official announcements because Saturday Night Live keeps its programming close to the vest.”), the Democratic co-frontrunner will almost definitely grace the long-running NBC sketch comedy program with his presence, giving himself a little hip media exposure and lending a dash of relevancy to the program.
But in the wake of last November’s shameful, disastrously unfunny hosting gig from Trump, SNL‘s “invitation” and Sanders’ agreement to come on the show takes on a larger cultural significance. Historically, the liberal-leaning SNL has welcomed big names from both parties on the show for equal-opportunity mockery, squeezing in jabs at Democratic ineffectiveness and Republican boorishness alike. In bringing Trump on as a host, however, they made a dangerous statement that can’t be unmade. Tapping Trump was a tacit affirmation of approval, or at the very least tolerance, for a candidate who has built a platform on xenophobia, self-aggrandizement, and loudness. For SNL, it may be too late to affect the appearance of nonpartisanship.
Even if SNL intended on eventually bringing out a Democrat when they chose Trump to host, the optics of the situation are such that Sanders’ appearance feels like backpedaling. And he’s only on for a cameo, from the sound of it. The imbalance is clear and quantifiable, easily broken down into screen time and lines. Giving Trump the A-OK to host represented a craven grab at ratings for NBC, and to make matters worse, it worked. The Trump Bump brought in 6.6 million viewers, a higher figure than the venerable comedy institution has seen in years.
Perhaps this wouldn’t be such an issue if SNL had taken Trump’s extended presence on their stage as an opportunity to poke fun at some of his many shortcomings as a politician and human man, but the overall program had the light-ribbing tone of a toast’s opening line. “He may be a gasbag bent on taking over the country,” the program seemed to say, “but we love him, and the uptick in publicity that he has brought us.” The perspective on Trump was barely critical, but assuming an apolitical stance in such a situation is, itself, a form of politics. Sanders shuffling onstage and grinning his big crazy-man grin won’t undo that.