Scot Bertram

The Trump Reality Sets In, Celebrity Cameos Reign, and John Mulaney Gets His Shot

Among the many complaints you always hear about Saturday Night Live these days is that the show is saturated with celebrity cameos. The actual cast members don’t get their chance to shine because the show is overstuffed with big names showing up to play the week’s newsmakers.

Season 42 certainly had its share of stuntcasting, with Melissa McCarthy showing up to crush the Sean Spicer character. But the celebrity cameo completely takes over in Season 43, with Robert DeNiro taking over the role of Robert Mueller, Ben Stiller showing up as Michael Cohen, and, of course, Alec Baldwin kicking off the overwhelming majority of the shows as Donald Trump.

And while the show actually showed some introspection and confusion about Trump’s election in Season 42, all such nuance is gone by the following season. The show is steeped in references to minor administration figures, weighing down the political content. In the middle of the season, the #MeToo scandals begin happening, commandeering the show’s political coverage for a few weeks.

Nonetheless, there are still bright spots. John Mulaney makes his hosting debut late in the season. Heidi Gardner replaces Vanessa Bayer on the cast and shows real promise. Kate McKinnon is still great, although her energy is sapped by playing random Republican politicians (Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Yes, you read that last one correctly.)

We cover all this and much more in this episode of Wasn’t That Special. Please subscribe and join us for a trip through every year of SNL, and consider joining at the Executive Producer level, where you get a whole load of extra commentary and clips that will help you become an SNL expert!

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