When "Saturday Night Live" returned over the weekend, it didn't come as a surprise that their cold open was devoted to Donald Trump. Following the broadcast, Trump and his transition team expressed outrage at the sketch-comedy show.
Trump's team on "SNL"
The theme of the most recent "Saturday Night Live" cold open revolved around Donald Trump and the press conference he hosted earlier this week.
As with the press conference, Alec Baldwin, as Trump, mocked the president-elect for denying a CNN report that claimed Russia was using "compromising" information to blackmail him. The punch-line for the skit focused on the follow-up report by Buzzfeed, that reported unverified information about an alleged "golden shower" sex tape that involved the president-elect. The skit prompted Trump to respond the following day on Twitter, blasting the show and the cast. In addition, as reported by Mediaite on January 16, incoming White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was not happy with the show.
Joining hosts Tamron Hall and Willie Geist on the "TODAY" show on NBC Monday morning was Sean Spicer.
When asked his thoughts about the "Saturday Night Live" satirical press conference, Spicer referred to it as "disappointing." "It was not funny," Spicer said, labeling it as "mean-spirited." Spicer continued, explaining his view on why the show is no longer funny.
"It's gone from being a show you could sit back and get a good laugh out of to being something that's frankly mean and bad television," Sean Spicer went on to say. Spicer's comments come less than 24 hours after Donald Trump lashed out at "SNL" and NBC during a rant on Twitter. "NBC News is bad but Saturday Night Live is the worst of NBC," the president-elect tweeted, calling the show "Not funny," while describing the cast as "terrible."
Moving forward
While Donald Trump and his transition team don't seem to be happy with the direction of "Saturday Night Live," the show has received rave reviews from critics.
Alec Baldwin, who has played the title role of Trump for some time, announced that he would discontinue his impression if the president-elect would release his tax returns. As of press time, Trump has not responded to Baldwin's challenge. With Trump headed into the White House in less than a week, it's expected that "SNL" will have plenty of material to work with over the next four years.