Saturday Night Live: Why Scarlett Johansson’s Donald Trump dog is worth re-watching
The sketch from Johansson’s episode (airing tonight) that is probably worth checking out again more so than any other is the one that features her as a scientist, desperate to show off what she feels to be one of the greatest inventions in recent memory: A machine that allows her to hear the thoughts of her dog Max. Unfortunately, here is the problem: Max is a Donald Trump supporter. This causes the rest of the people in the room to freak out, before eventually Johansson and Max go on their merry way and she puts something on him that looks very much like the dog version of the Trump hat.
There are two things that continue to make this sketch especially interesting.
1. It is poking fun of liberals and conservatives alike – The real point of this sketch seems to be mostly that we all want to spend so much time being outraged over what the other side believes that it makes it impossible to find any common ground. That’s what is so frustrating about the presence of social media in some ways: Because everyone can be anonymous, it almost disallows compromise and encourages people to just be mad. We don’t know a single person who goes on Twitter, starts some sort of fight, and then actually walks away from it feeling somewhat more satisfied than they were entering said fight in the first place.
2. It’s also a testament to how Scarlett can work on the fly – When the dog’s hat comes off, she gets right in there and works to correct the issue. That takes some pretty serious commitment to the craft, no? She also ad-libs pretty well, though you can probably make the case that after she knew how the dog felt politically, she wouldn’t be all that interested in putting the hat back on him in the first place.
Beyond the deeper points, this is just a funny sketch. It’s worth seeing again just for that.
What do you think about watching this sketch now, as opposed to when the show first aired? Share in the comments below!
Meanwhile, be sure to head over to the link here in the event you do want to get some further news right now when it comes to the show. (Photo: NBC.)