What better way for Saturday Night Live to skewer Fox News than to have their “Donald Trump” play their Bret Baier?
Personally, I found only parts of last night’s cold open skit funny. But they got Fox News down pat. Maya Rudolph is terrific as Kamala Harris and James Austin Johnson is so good at being Donald Trump that the comedian almost fooled me last week.
But as good as Johnson is at impersonating Trump, nobody beats Alec Baldwin’s caricature, in my book. Baldwin got right to the soul of Trump without having to look or talk like him. There is no doubt in my mind that SNL chose Baldwin to play Baier because he was acting as a Trump surrogate in that interview.
Baldwin was pretty good at being Baier, too. Like his Trump, Baldwin didn’t impersonate Baier but conveyed his scheming essence pretty well.
In another melding of Fox News and Trump, Donald Trump told Fox & Friends on Friday that Fox wrote his jokes at the Al Smith dinner. John Amato at Crooks and Liars caught it:
STEVE DOOCY (COHOST): You know Kamala Harris did not show up as you know, she sent a video from Saturday Night Live. You know, we have seen, historically, a lot of Democrats, they turn to the guys at Saturday Night Live or The Tonight Show, they write all their material. Your material was real funny.
Who wrote it? Who helped you with it?
TRUMP: Well, I've had a lot of people helping. A lot of people, a couple of people from Fox, actually, I shouldn't say that, but they wrote some jokes. And for the most part, I didn't like any of them.
That was followed by clips of highlights from Trump’s extremely lackluster monologue.
Brian points out that Fox News insists “no employee or freelancer wrote the jokes.” But I’m not so sure. Why did Steve Doocy ask who wrote the jokes? Trump said he shouldn't have said it was "a couple of people from Fox" but none of the cohosts sounded shocked. Maybe people at Fox did it without the higher ups knowing? Or maybe it was Alec Baldwin! Just kidding.
If you haven’t yet seen last night's SNL cold open, watch it below, from the October 19, 2024 Saturday Night Live. Underneath is Trump on the October 18, 2024 Fox & Friends.
Let me know what you think!
