Saturday Night Live cast makes its case to stay off Trump's enemies list

A serious development in current events can sometimes leave late-night live sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) unable to make any satirical comment on it, and that was briefly how it appeared the show might react to the re-election of former United States president Donald Trump on Nov 5.

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The Nov 9 broadcast began with seeming solemnity, as a group of SNL cast members, including Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim, Kenan Thompson and Heidi Gardner, took note of Trump's presidential election victory over US Vice President Kamala Harris, who had made a surprise cameo on SNL on Nov 2.

"To many people," Nwodim said, "including many people watching this show right now, the results were shocking and even horrifying".

Gardner continued: "Donald Trump, who tried to forcibly overturn the results of the last election, was returned to office by an overwhelming majority."

Thompson said: "This is the same Donald Trump who openly called for vengeance against his political enemies."

"Now," said Yang, "thanks to the Supreme Court, there are no guard rails."

Nwodim added that there would be "nothing to protect the people who are brave enough to speak out against him".