Darrel Hammond and Taran Killam both played great Donald Trumps, but now Alec Baldwin has been given The Donald’s hairpiece (not his actual hairpiece) to place firmly on his head for the premiere of Saturday Night Live‘s 42nd season. Hammond was great, but it’s clear the show made the right choice.
The sketch started with a hacking Hillary Clinton (Kate McKinnon) making her way to the podium via somersault (Willy Wonka-style). But it was Baldwin who stole the opener. He looked and sounded the part to a scary degree.
But it’s not like Hillary got off easy, the low-hanging fruit regarding Clinton’s weird “Trump’d up trickle down economics” served as fodder for the sketch, but this was nothing compared to Trump who was lampooned for just about every single thing he’s ever said and done. He also blamed his strange sniffs on the mic, Clinton, Obama, Kenya and of course, China.
Which bounced perfectly off McKinnon’s Clinton.
The strangest thing about Baldwin’s take on Trump, and SNL‘s parody of the first presidential debate, was that it really wasn’t all that different from what we’ve seen over the last year from the real Trump. The sketch just went a few steps further than Trump typically goes (while holding back from how far Trump can actually go).
How weird is it when a presidential candidate is such a parody of himself that he can’t be cut down by satire? Baldwin’s Trump was so spot-on it may have hurt the sketch.
Let’s think about that while we all thank Tina Fey for suggesting Baldwin play Trump in the first place.