Satire in the 2016 election cycle

The highly anticipated Saturday Night Live season opener began as expected, poking fun at the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. News outlets questioned how SNL would handle this controversial election cycle and whether the show would take a side—Clinton’s, particularly—to weigh in on the election. This debate raised the concern of how comedy should approach the election cycle.

A few weeks ago Samantha Bee trashed Jimmy Fallon’s handling of his interview with Trump, calling him out for normalizing a person she considers to be a dangerous menace to society. However, is it fair for her to question Fallon like that? Well, Jimmy Fallon is not a news reporter; he is a comedian. His main goal is ratings; he provides laughs to as broad an audience as possible to get the best ratings he can. That’s his motive. Yet, Samantha Bee does raise an important ethical question: should comedians be held to some kind of moral standard?

In my opinion, yes. But since neither she nor I know what moral impetus Jimmy Fallon has, it is hard to criticize his actions. Her point was certainly fair, considering her personal feelings towards Trump. If one feels that Trump is potentially devastating to society, then that should be reflected in their act. Comedy is not objective; it is deliberate, and the best comedy often reflects perspectives on social issues.

So this brings it back to SNL. Though Washington Post reporter Callum Borchers said that SNL simply mocked and did not present true satire in its ridicule of the first presidential debate, there’s more upon a deeper look. Borchers said that the humor “remained safely in the realm of absurdist humor, never venturing into the territory of truly biting satire.” However, the irony SNL employs illuminates how objectively ridiculous some of Trump’s claims were during the debate. Nothing sums this up better than the uncontrollable obsession of Alec Baldwin’s Trump caricature with Rosie O’Donnell, during a presidential debate.

While in real time something like that might’ve gone unnoticed, SNL does its job of showcasing the severity of such a misplaced and pathetic scene. It went further. At every turn in the debate Trump would deflect from substantial policy to issues that just don’t matter. SNL painted Trump as a buffoon in this sketch who has no place being on the stage with Hillary Clinton, which was a portrait partially provided by Trump himself.

The intention of SNL’s satire was revealed within its apparent impartialness. Kate McKinnon portrayed Hillary Clinton as a robotic politician, which has been one of Trump’s main critiques of her as a candidate. She overemphasized the hilarity of Clinton’s performance, poking fun of her coyly-spontaneous titling of “Trumped-up, Trickle-Down Economics,” and her attempts at relatability through stories such as that of her drape-making father. While these were meant to even the score with the character of Trump, nothing was done to meaningfully bring Clinton down. In making fun of both candidates, SNL comes across as impartial to the general audience, yet one candidate was clearly bashed more than the other.

SNL made it clear to their audience that they believe Trump is not worthy of serious consideration of the presidency, based on what he has said in real life. However, unlike Samantha Bee’s straightforward humor in which she does not pretend to hide her disdain for Trump, SNL is able to reach more people through its ingenious satire.

SNL drives home its message—that in this very serious presidential cycle, there is only one serious candidate out there. Theirs is not absurdist humor; it’s satire. In fact, and unfortunately so, SNL doesn’t have to force upon Trump a genuinely insane personality. Their portrayal of Trump is not so far from the true Trump. Though comedians certainly have their own jurisdiction as to how they might approach this election cycle, one thing is certain: comedy has an extremely important role in this election cycle; it puts things into a consumable perspective. SNL lived up to the anticipation and hit hard with its opening scene, presenting an extremely funny, yet all-too-real view on both of the major-party candidates in this election.