Saturday Night Live poked fun at it’s own political sketch past with another Leonard Cohen moment, but this time with Alec Baldwin’s Trump with previous host Scarlett Johansson and many others joining in as well. The moment recalled when Kate McKinnon, as Hillary Clinton, both tried to move on from the election and honor Leonard Cohen’s passing by performing his signature song “Hallelujah” while playing piano.
During this cold open to kick off the season’s finale, Baldwin’s Trump, Johansson’s Ivanka, McKinnon’s Kellyanne Conway, plus Death AKA Steve Bannon and the Trump sons, all gathered around the piano to sing the same song. The group singalong was full of fun throwaway moments such as McKinnon’s Kellyanne crossing her fingers when the line “didn’t come here to fool you” came up, and the Trump boys being unable to sing without standing rigidly like twin ghosts of Goldman Sachs past. Aidy Bryant’s Huckabee and Cecily Strong’s Melania, who also joined in, made a few funny faces during the earnest lyrics and looked sufficiently awkward based on their real-life counterpart’s positions in the administration.
The end of the sketch consisted of Baldwin’s Trump looking up from the piano, and simply saying,
“I’m not giving up because I didn’t do anything wrong. But I can’t say the same for these people.”
It’s probably the most unsettling accurate-to-real-life comment Baldwin has said while playing the president on the show, seeing as based on how things are going it seems like Trump definitely does not plan on giving up despite the poor trajectory things seem to be on right now. The administration around him might crumble, but he’ll be singing Leonard Cohen around a piano while everyone else voluntarily gives up all this “winning.”
(Via SNL)
