Through all of this, “SNL” was simply presenting their comedic take on Trump — as they have done
for all Presidents since the show launched in October 1975.
But on this week’s episode, the show took it a step further and intentionally trolled Trump —and they did it by taking a page out of Trump’s own playbook and then getting it to trend on his favorite social media platform: Twitter. In a word, “SNL”‘s trolling of Trump was: Perfect!
The master class in Trump trolling took place during “SNL”‘s Weekend Update segment, co-hosted by comedians Colin Jost and Michael Che. Jost, with an image over his shoulder of the stock market chart showing last week’s massive drop with the words “Stock Market plunges” adjacent to Trump’s face, began
by telling us, “The stock market this week posted its largest point loss in history, which a lot of people are now referring to as the ‘Trump slump.'”
He then adds, “And by a lot of people, I mean me. The same way when Trump says ‘a lot of people’ are saying something, he just means he is.”
Jost, to big laughs, continued, “So now all these people are coming up and saying, ‘Trump Slump’ and everyone is talking about this ‘Trump Slump.’ And how there’s a ‘Trump Slump.'” With the laughs growing, Jost closed, “And I can’t even talk about the ‘Trump Slump’ without someone saying, ‘How about Trump Slump?’… Anyway, that’s the economy…”
Lo and behold, within hours of that segment airing on “SNL,” the term “Trump Slump” as well as #TrumpSlump were trending on Twitter. In fact, by 9 a.m. ET on Sunday the term was the number two top trending topic on the platform as people gleefully amplified the term, including well-known comedian/actor Mike Birbiglia
tweeting, “People are saying there’s a #TrumpSlump.” That means Trump could have woken up to the words “Trump Slump” trending on his beloved Twitter.
Triggering Trump is not challenging. If you are well known and say something about Trump that upsets the Snowflake in Chief, he will lash out. But what “SNL” did here was masterful in that they used Trump’s own “A Lot of People Are Saying” phrase — which he uses to spread misinformation and conspiracy theories — against him.
There are countless examples of Trump doing just this. During his 2016 campaign against his then-rival and now defender GOP Senator Ted Cruz, Trump stated “a lot of people are talking about it,”
when discussing Cruz being born in Canada and how that could undermine his run for president.
In May 2018, Trump
told us that “A lot of people are saying they had spies in my campaign,” referring to his claim that the FBI has planted spies in his 2016 team. That was later debunked by the Justice Departments’ Inspector General report, but Trump had succeeded in spreading
that baseless information. There’s
even a new book delving into Trump’s use of this phrase to spread misinformation, called, “A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy.” In fact, if Trump were an “SNL” character, this would be his comedic catch phrase.
While serious criticism of Trump by the media has often upset him, “SNL” and late-night comedians mocking Trump over the past few years
has really triggered him. Why? Simple: authoritarian figures hate to be laughed at. They want to be feared or loved, not be punch lines. I saw that first-hand performing stand-up comedy across the Middle East. From Egypt to Saudi Arabia, we were told “no jokes about the rulers of the country.”
Will “SNL” trolling Trump get him to change his behavior when it comes to his use of his favorite catchphrase to spread misinformation? Stop laughing. Of course not. The only question is will Trump lash out at “SNL” at some point for this? “A lot of people are saying” it’s very likely.
Source : Nbcnewyork
