"Saturday Night Live" takes part in the mid-term elections

"Yesterday it was Halloween. Tomorrow is the New York Marathon. That's how the host of the Saturday Night Live show, Chris Rock, dressed in black, expressed his concerns of the week as he paced the stage from Studio 8H towards midnight on November 1, 2014, before embarking on controversial material. on the bombing of the Boston Marathon the year before, and the unsuitable opening of the Freedom Tower the following week. He spread his arms with the air of someone who was trying to calm an audience, as if everything was about to get out of hand. That same episode touched on the Ebola crisis, Hurricane Sandy and Chris Christie's presidential outlook for 2016. "Is America ready for a guy like Kevin James?" Asked Bobby Moynihan, playing Christie in a skit, referring to the star of the sitcom "King of Queens", while he shrugged like a soprano. striped suit. "An affable jamoke of the old neighborhood?"

Notably absent from the debates at the top of the show, at least from the point of view of our ruthlessly political present, there was no mention of Tuesday's mid-term elections. The public was perfectly aware, about halfway through the episode, of the introduction of a sketch on the loyalty of black voters to Obama, and again of Michael Che at the "Weekend Update" counter. "I know a lot of people are not going to vote because they do not follow politics, but it's not an excuse. I do not know anything about politics, but last year I voted for Mayor Bill de Blasio because I loved his son's afro, and it was as important as that of a smart man Che said. "So be sure to vote and vote next Tuesday. Or this Tuesday. It does not matter. Who cares, man? These are the midterms. It's not even important. The line summarized what many Americans probably felt. After the elections, the Democrats lost control of the Senate for the first time since 2006.

Four years later, on the other side of 2016, after a Queens jamoke took over the White House, he raised the political temperature of the country. a week and a half after a man in a van sent bombs to a dozen political figures; a week after another man killed a synagogue in Pittsburgh; and a few days after another adventure in a hot yoga studio in Tallahassee, it's hard to know what you feel, or what a humorous series like "Saturday Night Live" often helps to clarify the perspective of the country facing difficult events. . Meanwhile, the president who helped stir up the violent cloud over the country provides seemingly endless comic fodder that can sometimes seem too sad to touch. Like Candide in Voltaire, plagued by tragedy on all sides, we find it hard to understand that it's the best of all possible worlds and, even more difficult to determine, what are the best possible jokes.

Nowadays, the sketches of "S.N.L." are studied with talmudic completeness by large and small outlets. Some critics criticize the writers of the series for being too politically unilateral, others not to be sufficiently political. Recapitulative, a now ubiquitous journalistic form that surrounds every TV show that is hotly debated, has been expanded by the appearance of the "precap", suggesting what might be remarkable in an episode that has not has been broadcast. The TVLine website predicted that Robert De Niro could be reinstated as a special advocate with Jon Muhler, the pre-midterm episode of this season, in light of recent allegations of sexual misconduct against the former FBI director who quickly proved to be a hoax, or that there could be an appearance of the "SNL" alumist, Will Ferrell, who, with Oprah, knocked on the doors of the governor candidate, Stacey Abrams, in Georgia, in "Weekend Update". . "

However, TVLine's oracles could not see clearly in their crystal ball. Alec Baldwin – a frequent host of the Saturday Night Live show and an even more frequent celebrity, who plays the caricature of Donald Trump's series – was arrested for allegedly assaulting a man who allegedly survived. Boston Marathon Attack. . Baldwin has lamented the use or overuse of Baldwin, who claims that his Trump seems to simply parrot, without the least discernment, the absurd lies and bluster of the commander-in-chief. This is not always true; The drawings of Baldwin playing Trump as a confused child under the thumb of Steve Bannon – represented under the sign of death, with a skull mask and a black robe – seem to have contributed to the eviction of the councilor, the last summer. Still, it was a joy and a relief to see SNL star Kate McKinnon in the cold opening, with a blonde headdress and a red dress, as Laura Ingraham, host of the TV series. conservative.

In doing so, McKinnon and the editors of "S.N.L." gave viewers something tired but comforting: a Fox News mailing. "Just to respond quickly to all the mail from my fans:" No, you are McKinnon started, his arm pressed against the desk in front of her. The specific purpose of this sketch was the fear of the administration against a group of Latin American refugees who were slowly crossing Mexico. "Tonight we live from the Arizona border," continued McKinnon. "An infernal caravan of tens, if not millions, of illegal immigrants is heading straight for you and your grandchildren." Throughout the segment, Cecily Strong, playing the role of Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro and Kenan Thompson, as former Milwaukee sheriff, David Clarke, joined McKinnon's Ingraham and, in a parody of Fox's predilection for the use of erroneous clips, evoked what they described as images of the migrant caravan: a crowd of Black Friday customers ripping boxes, a scene of Brad Pitt fleeing a horde infected with the virus in the apocalyptic horror film "World War Z", and crabs slipping on the sand on a beach. "The situation is urgent, Laura," Thompson said, arching an eyebrow under a black cowboy hat. "The caravan is only eight hundred miles from our border. If these immigrants walk at a normal pace of three hundred kilometers a day, they could be here in time to vote on polling day. "

From that moment on, political urgency, neurosis and fatigue became the leitmotiv of the episode. NBC's New York channel has charged the hour before campaign postings. In apparent response, a perfectly prepared and prerecorded parody of democratic messages of the "blue wave", in which liberal voters trembled with worried optimism about the resumption of the House, included an oblique reference to recent violence – Heidi Gardner, a grizzled suburban mother, stands on her lawn and shouts for her kids to stay home until the end of the election – and ends with McKinnon as an upset florist owner screaming until the showcases from his shop are broken. In another pre-recorded segment, Aidy Bryant played Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a spokesperson for a sleep aid tailored to her own guilty conscience. Taking a tablet causes it to collapse immediately, breaking down tables and chairs to get to the ground. McKinnon was interpreted as a high school teacher who fell to the ground. She can not or will not get up, but still wants to give her students a glimpse of the human condition. This sketch seemed to better reflect the general mood of the country. "Maybe you're kidding because you're scared," McKinnon said, as his students – played by Hill, Bryant, and Pete Davidson, who were barely laughing – expressed their concern. "The teacher is in the field. Everything is different. Are we O.K.

Admittedly, things are different on this side of 2016, but "Saturday Night Live" has long been treating the weak points of the United States. Sometimes tragedies, trauma and terror require a softer response. But, at other times, "S.N.L." was the place where American confusion and pain best expressed. In 1978, the first year the screenwriters and comedians of the series could get elected mid-term, Dan Aykroyd, in the cold, embodied Jimmy Carter, relentless, who knew he was going to face bad results . Later, at the "Weekend Update" counter, under the eyes of Jane Curtin, John Belushi, more and more bellicose, was unleashed on the importance of the mid-session of this Tuesday until he fell from the chair . He spoke of the vote as a sacred right, referred to the victims of the country's war on drugs ("There are still prisoners in Texas prison eating rats because they were caught with a seed!"), And described reprimanding a friend who did not vote. "In Amsterdam, everyone votes there," he said, becoming more and more furious as he pointed to the camera. "And they smoke hash in the streets. So do not tell me it does not make any difference! "

Four decades later, Michael Che, after expressing his resignation, mainly for laughter, changed his tone from 2014 and made a similar call. As the camera moved away at the end of the segment and the audience cheered, he pushed his hands forward in a gesture of encouragement. "Vote!", He shouted. "Vote, vote, vote!"