EVEN BEFORE HIS INAUGURATION in January, President Trump faced sustained criticism from predictable quarters, including celebrities like Meryl Streep, commentariat on both the left and the right, groups of protesters around the world and the news media.
Yet in a turn fittingly strange for our times, the most stinging critique of the new Administration has come from NBC’s Saturday Night Live. The show is in its 42nd season, and its sketch format may as well be prehistoric. But its Trump skewering has been captivating, depicting the President (Alec Baldwin) as a buffoon seeking to litigate his Executive Order on immigration on The People’s Court, counselor Kellyanne Conway (Kate McKinnon) as a crazed monster desperate to get on the news and press secretary Sean “Spicey” Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) as thuggishly incompetent. This is vaudeville comedy for a vaudeville presidency.
And it’s allowed the show to break through in a way that few other modes of critiquing Trump have. The Feb. 11 episode hosted by Baldwin was SNL’s most-watched episode in six years. Among the key demographic of 18-to-49-year-olds, it scored higher ratings than any prime-time programming that week. More than that, it has helped crystallize the public images of various players in Trump’s Administration, so much so that begging to appear as a Cabinet member or adviser has become de rigueur for celebrities.
This story is from the February 27 - March 6,2017 edition of Time.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 27 - March 6,2017 edition of Time.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Pioneers
America Ferrera Kennedy Odede Ophelia Dahl Sharon Lavigne Sam Tsemberis Lesley Lokko Stuart Orkin Asma Khan Priyamvada Natarajan Yoshua Bengio + more
The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Icons
Taraji P. Henson Jenni Hermoso Michael J. Fox Sofia Coppola Burna Boy Thelma Golden Elliot Page Mark Cuban Kylie Minogue Hayao Miyazaki + more
The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Innovators
Jensen Huang Rachel Hardeman Akiko Iwasaki Shawn Fain Maya Rudolph Dominique Crenn Marina Tabassum Dave Ricks Tory Burch Siya Kolisi + more
The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Leaders
Yulia Navalnaya Ajay Banga William Ruto Rena Lee Andriy Yermak Donald Tusk William Lai William Burns Narges Mohammadi Marina Silva + more
The 100 Most Influential People in the World -Titans
Patrick Mahomes A'ja Wilson Kelly Ripa Donna Langley Satya Nadella Beth Ford Jack Antonoff Kelley Robinson Larry Ellison Max Verstappen + more
The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Artists
Dua Lipa James McBride Da'Vine Joy Randolph Alex Edelman Dev Patel Lauren Groff Alia Bhatt Jeffrey Wright 21 Savage Jenny Holzer + more
William McRaven The retired admiral who took down Osama bin Laden on why U.S. leadership matters, the AI race, and what he's going to do with $50 million
You recently received the Bezos Courage and Civility Award, with $50 million to give to charities of your choice. How are you planning to use it? Almost all of this is going to be focused on veterans and their families the children who've lost fathers and mothers in combat. And the other area is mental health for servicemen. What don't the VA and the military health care system cover?
The real Carmichael show
JERROD CARMICHAEL HAD BEEN a famous comedian for almost a decade when he dropped his average-dude persona and started being real. In his 2022 special, Rothaniel, he came out as gay, speaking with rueful humor about internalized homophobia and his fractured relationship with his devoutly Christian mother. It was a creative turning point as well as a personal one.
A jumbled parable with a glowing core
EVEN WHEN A MOVIE IS FAR FROM PERFECT, YOU CAN tell when a director has poured his soul into it. Dev Patel's directorial debut Monkey Man-he's also the movie's star-is trying too hard, and for too much. It wants to be a political allegory, a somber study of a man haunted by childhood trauma, a clarion blast of inspiration for downtrodden humans seeking to summon strength, and last but hardly least, a brutally exhilarating action entertainment.
The pacifist gospel of Civil War
OUTSIDE OF ATLANTA, A CREAKY WHITE VAN WEAVED down a highway lined with abandoned cars. A helicopter sat in the parking lot of a charred JCPenney. Armed guards in military fatigues patrolled checkpoints. A death squad dumped corpses into a mass grave. Artillery boomed in the offing.