Ever since I was old enough, I have been watching Saturday Night Live with my parents. At first, it was just a hilarious show to me with guest appearances from my favorite artists. As I grew older, I started to understand the skits more and could see the political side. Over the last couple years, in particular, the skits on SNL have become an important source of politics for the public by adding comedy to news, but the people they portray are not always happy to be mocked. President Donald Trump has spoken out about his issues with the SNL skits, but I believe he needs to realize these skits are not meant to target him or his cabinet members in particular.
SNL has become popular for portraying the presidential candidates in their political skits and recently, since they have been targeting specific people in Donald Trump’s staff, there have been reports from CNN that it is getting under Trump’s skin. He has begun lashing out on Twitter after multiple parodies of his staff aired. Should Trump take such offense to these comedy sketches?
SNL skits are not for everyone. Some people may see it as the show mocking our political leaders, but I believe it is very important in this day and age. The news comes in many different forms, from Twitter to newspapers to comedy TV shows, the radio and more. SNL takes a different approach to getting the news out. They make it comedic, which makes it much more interesting and easier to understand for some viewers. As an 18-year-old college student, sometimes reading lengthy articles or watching the news about the political world can be boring, but watching a comedy skit that relays the same information can be more engaging because adding humor to a serious topic can make it more fun to watch. It may seem like SNL has too much power by being able to manipulate these characters, but in reality, they are helping people to understand more about politics.
SNL has been mocking politics for over 40 years now. They have portrayed political leaders such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, George W. Bush and many more. I believe Trump is overreacting to the political sketches on SNL that are stationed around him. Trump and his staff are not the first to be mocked on SNL and SNL’s goal is not to humiliate Trump. Whenever SNL is doing a political skit, they are making fun of the political figure that they are portraying while also trying to get information across to the public. By dressing up in wigs, changing their voices, and replicating popular trademarks, SNL is able to reach out to the public and alert them to what is going on in the political world by adding a comedic twist that makes it more enjoyable to watch.
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