By Rob Tornoe
The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Saturday Night Live” has been mocking politicians and presidential candidates since Chevy Chase first painted Gerald Ford as a bumbling idiot. Most candidates shake off the jabs, or at the very least don’t want to appear to voters as though they lack a sense of humor when it comes to making fun of themselves.
But then, Donald Trump is unique when it comes to presidential candidates.
The Republican presidential nominee, who has called Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of him a “hit job” and said it’s “time to retire the boring and funny show,” appears to still harbor a grudge at the “inaccurate” way the former “30 Rock” star has chosen to mock him.
“I think I’m a much nicer guy than he’s portraying,” Trump said when asked about the performance during an interview with “Extra” host A.J. Calloway. “He’s portraying somebody who’s very mean and nasty and I’m not mean and nasty.”
Former cast member Tina Fey, in an interview at the Produced by New York conference on Saturday, said the writers and co-stars she worked with never took political sides.
“We spent so much time and care on making sure everything was a fair hit,” Fey said. “We never, ever went into it thinking, ‘We gotta protect Obama’ or ‘We gotta make (the Republicans) look bad.’ Audiences can smell when a sketch is tipped.”
Possibly as a result of that perceived fairness, it has been common for presidential candidates to appear on the show. Last season, Hillary Clinton made an appearance as a bartender during the lengthy primary fight with Bernie Sanders. And Barack Obama was just a Democratic candidate when he appeared on the show in 2008.
Republicans have also taken a stab at self-mockery. John McCain appeared beside Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin just three days before the 2008 election, while 1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole appeared just after his election loss to console Norm Macdonald, who played Dole on the show.
Even Palin was game enough to appear on the show, replacing Fey’s Palin behind the podium during a press conference sketch:
Trump hosted SNL back in 2004, more than a decade before his presidential run. He also hosted last season, and claims producers would love to have him back on the show. But after witnessing Baldwin’s “inaccurate” portrayal, Trump says he has no interest in making a return visit.
“No, I’m not interested in going back,” Trump said. “They’re making me out to be a very mean, bad kind of a guy and that’s not me.”
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