Amidst all the breaking news this week, such as the Trump administration unceremoniously firing FBI Director Comey and the storm of leaks that came directly afterwards, it seemed the more ridiculous pieces of information kept rising to the top of the proverbial cream. Such as Donald Trump getting two scoops of ice cream instead of one during a presidential dinner. Which seems like an insane thing for the news to cover, and yet that’s a thing that really happened even when so many other things are going on.
Which also makes it an ideal thing for SNL to spoof, which the show did with a sendup of this week’s interview between Trump and Lester Holt. From the moment Trump calls Michael Che’s Holt “jazz man” the sketch is clicking, mostly because there’s so much material to mine. While discussing the firing of Comey, Che’s Holt gets him to admit that he fired Comey because of the ongoing Russia investigation and the excited-then-dejected conversation with his producer of “Did I get him? Is this all over? No, I didn’t. Nothing matters. Absolutely nothing matters anymore” is almost borderline unfunny because it’s uncomfortably true in the current political environment.
The reason nothing matters, in the real world and in this sketch, is pretty much because the Republicans are all in on the Trump administration even if some decisions are not good for them politically either. In the world of the sketch, Paul Ryan literally appears at the ring of Trump’s bell to deliver him ice cream. Two scoops. Not one. Because Nixon probably got one scoop only, which is one of the many reasons Trump and Nixon are not comparable right now. Baldwin even puts up two peace signs like Nixon, which is probably too easy a laugh to get when things are so dire in real life. Even so, imagining a sad Paul Ryan walking around the White House with an ice cream cart is a great mental image.
