SNL's President Trump-Kanye West cold open was essentially done before

The Atlantic

Back in January 2016, when Darrell Hammond was Saturday Night Live's Trump, Tina Fey appeared as Sarah Palin giving a speech while Hammond's Trump delivered an inner monologue to the camera. SNL essentially repeated the sketch with its spoof of West's visit last week to the Oval Office. "Though the sketch drew some facile comparisons between West and Trump’s ways of thinking, it ended up making Trump seem extremely self-aware, a tough satirical point to land," says David Sims. "The jokes also leaned on lazy, stigmatizing punchlines about mental illness. Combined with last week’s portrayal of the Senate as pumped-up and triumphant, so far SNL hasn’t done much to actually skewer the people in charge of the country. Indeed, the program could learn a few lessons from (host Seth) Meyers, whose talk show Late Night delivers incisive, witty commentary on the administration almost every night with its 'Closer Look' segment."

ALSO:

• SNL failed to make Kanye West's Oval Office remarks weirder than they already were
• Jonah Hill will join the Five-Timers Club when he hosts SNL on Nov. 3 with musical guest Maggie Rogers
• SNL ratings rebound with host Seth Meyers
• Alec Baldwin made fun of his "black people love me" comments in his Trump cold open
• Kenan Thompson revived his Bill Cosby impression for a prison-set sketch
• Twitter was upset that Bill Hader's Stefon didn't reunite with Meyers