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The Best Donald Trump Sketches From 'Saturday Night Live' Season 42

Ben Yakas

Published May 24, 2017

Modified May 24, 2017

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Ben Yakas

Published May 24, 2017

Modified May 24, 2017

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Alec Baldwin appeared on Saturday Night Live in 17 of the 21 episodes this past season, each time performing as Donald Trump. Over the season he logged more minutes of screen time than many regular cast members. His impression, which emphasized and exaggerated Trump's most blunt qualities, started out as a phenomenon, helping to rocket SNL to its best ratings in two decades. Although he didn't always bring a lot of nuance to his impression, Baldwin picked up on one key detail which informed and propelled it to the national consciousness: no matter what happens, his Trump always seems miserable.

As the season wore on, and especially in the immediate aftermath of Trump winning the election, people began to get burnt out on all the Trump cold opens, which were hampered by being too closely tied to the real life doings; with SNL trying to keep up with the accelerated news cycle, the sketches often amounted to little more than a recap of the week. But there were still moments of brilliance later on (as with the People's Court sketch, or the Lester Holt interview) that made his every appearance must-see-TV.

"There's been a career renewal for me, which I'm very grateful for, and I'm not going to say that it's come with a cost," Baldwin told us in April. It's still unclear whether he'll return next season to play Trump—even Baldwin isn't sure, though he's left the door open if he isn't out of the country filming a movie come fall. In the meantime, we've counted down our favorite Trump sketches of the season below.

(ICYMI: Here are our 20 favorite pre-taped segments, Digital Shorts and fake commercials; and our 20 favorite live sketches and monologues.)

While the first debate in the season premiere (with host Margot Robie) was an instant hit and validation of Lorne Michael's decision to bring Baldwin aboard, the first great sketch was the second Town Hall debate (from Emily Blunt's episode), where Trump stalked Hillary Clinton onstage like the shark from Jaws.

The third debate, from Tom Hanks' episode, may have had the best hit-to-miss joke ratio, including laugh out loud moments involving Trump ranting about abortions, Hillary's Trump Bingo card, a cutaway to the entire planet laughing at Trump's claim no one respects women more than him, and Hillary shilling her "Nasty Woman" mug.

The final pre-election Trump/Clinton cold open started out like the others, with a recap of the past week of campaign twists and turns. But at that point, the cast was pretty burnt out on the nastiness of it all: "By the third debate, it had become so blech and toxic, there was nothing more we could say," Kate McKinnon told Hollywood Reporter. Instead, the sketch swerved when Baldwin and McKinnon broke character ("Don't you guys feel gross all the time about all this?") and ran through Times Square hugging people before urging viewers to vote. It could have served as a very sweet ending to the campaign madness...but alas.

After the election, the subsequent Trump cold opens were among the weakest of the season (it was admittedly a hard time for many to find humor in anything). When the show returned in January, his first press conference since getting elected (in the Felicity Jones episode) was pretty good (with lots of questions about the pee tape), but the next really great sketch was in Kristen Stewart's episode, which marked the first appearance of Grim Reaper Steve Bannon and Trump's big boy desk.

When Baldwin himself hosted in February, he ceded the cold open to Melissa McCarthy's white hot Sean Spicer. It was the best thing that could have happened for everyone—this was around the time when people were just starting to get burnt out on Trump sketches—because it allowed the writers to come up with a more creative setting for the next Trump sketch: The People's Court, with "TV President" Trump (and best pal Vladimir Putin) up against the Ninth Circuit Court judges who shot down his travel ban.

After a couple more less-than-memorable appearances (Trump dealing with an alien attack, Trump talking to "Trump's people"), Baldwin pulled double duty as both Trump and Bill O'Reilly for an interview about sexual harassment that was a lot tougher on both men than the average SNL sketch.

Jimmy Fallon stepped in to play Jared Kushner for his episode, then Trump was interviewed by Lester Holt (Michael Che) in Melissa McCarthy's penultimate episode of the season. Although there was a cold open featuring the entire Trump administration singing "Hallelujah" in the season finale, Holt's reaction to Trump admitting to obstruction of justice was the best kicker to season of Trump: "Wait so, did I get him? Is this all over? Oh, no I didn't? Nothing matters? Absolutely nothing matters anymore?"

And we'd be remiss if we didn't make a special tip of the cap to Through Donald's Eyes, from the John Cena episode, which was the best Trump sketch not featuring Baldwin.

Tagged

alec baldwin

best of SNL

donald trump

saturday night live

snl

television

original

Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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