‘Saturday Night Live’: Alec Baldwin claims NBC ‘kills’ further political slanting during sketches

At the moment, it certainly appears that “Saturday Night Live” is a show where nobody seems to be getting precisely what they want from it, and there is a certain degree of this that is rather frustrating given that all of this chatter is hampering a show that is in the midst of its best run in years. Other than Benedict Cumbartch and Emily Blunt’s episodes, the remainder of the season should be commended for being both topical and terribly funny.

We’ve heard a lot over the past two days that the show went too far with their cold open this past weekend featuring Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton delivering a somber rendition of “Hallelujah,” a move designed both to be a Leonard Cohen tribute and also a message to disenfranchised Clinton voters that everyone will persevere with Donald Trump as President. Some felt like it was too political for this show, whereas others felt it was extremely poignant and beautiful. (We tend to fall more in the latter spot.)

For the most part, though, one of the longtime hallmarks of “SNL” is that this is a show that isn’t completely slanted politically, and it appeals to a wide demographic. In a way, it’s dangerous to slant it further since it creates the sort of us-against-the-world mentality that contributed heavily to the result of this past election in the first place.

Here’s what we find interesting: In a post on Twitter (see below), recent Donald Trump impressionist Alec Baldwin suggested that NBC will “kill” any sketch that goes too far down a certain path or tells viewers what to believe or who to vote for. This was in the midst of a discussion with Daniel D’Addario, a man we respect greatly but disagree with slightly in terms of his notion that the show lacked the courage to be more biting in a certain direction in the election. One specific example he gives, of course, is Donald Trump hosting the show at this point last year.

Do we think personally that bringing on Trump to host was a mistake? Absolutely, but we think in general, it’s a mistake to have an active candidate getting that sort of platform. Then again, we can’t look at this in a results-oriented way. We don’t believe NBC hired Trump with the thinking that he would eventually be the President-Elect, and we think it’s somewhat silly to imagine that people were out there voting for him because he was on “SNL.” It’s not this show’s job to inform people on the issues or tell them who to vote for. If voters aren’t getting that, it’s more an indictment on the rest of the serious media out there.

We can’t tell “SNL” now to suddenly become a show that it’s not just because we’re unhappy in some way with the election result. There are so many other places out there like “The Daily Show” or “Last Week Tonight” that have more of a defined point of view, so we like that this is a show that exists to spoof everyone. We understand the frustrations, but at the same time, It seems wrong for the actions of one day to change a tradition that’s been around well over forty years.

Head over here in the event that you did miss our review of this past episode, which also featured Dave Chappelle as host.