Former Saturday Night Live cast member, Nora Dunn, is very upset over the fact that Donald Trump is hosting that show this Saturday. So upset to the point of incoherence. She tries to make the case against Trump but pretty much all she can come up with is she doesn't like him. While explaining her dislike of Trump, Dunn wanders off into semi-coherent psychobabble which makes one wonder if there was a shrink sitting beside her couch taking notes as she wanders slightly in and mostly out of topic for paragraph after paragraph. Of course, during her extended ramble not one word of objection to the recent appearance of Hillary Clinton on SNL.
So here is Nora Dunn at the Huffington Post taking a long, long time to explain why Trump shouldn't host SNL because she plain doesn't like his politics:
Saturday Night Live may well be the longest running comedy show in the history of television. The first cast was a few years older than me, though I still considered them my peers. We didn't know each other personally, but it felt like we did.
The original cast of Saturday Night Live was much more than the clique, or the in-crowd, they were the anti-in-crowd. They were the outsiders who became the insiders which is what made them heroes. Gilda, Larraine, and Jane were the girls who didn't make the cheerleading squad. Dan and John and Garrett and later Bill Murray weren't the best looking football players. They were popular because they were funny. Funny is always king, or queen, and that first season of SNL featured Lily Tomlin, Madeline Kahn, Louise Lasser, Jill Clayburgh, the great Buck Henry and Anthony Perkins, among others. In those days we all thought the hosts and the cast hung out together. They all seemed to live in the same world, and that was part of the magic and the charm.
Hmmm.... I thought Dunn was supposed to be writing about why Donald Trump shouldn't host the show this Saturday. Her show history goes on for several more paragraphs that didn't need to be there before she actually tackles the subject of Trump. But first...another sample paragraph as she travels through time to Saturday Night Live past:
The persona of Saturday Night Live has changed, though under the tutelage of Lorne Michaels it has never lost its élan. The SNL 40-year reunion was proof of that. It's easier to list who wasn't there than who was, but I couldn't help but feel that the nature and the age of the guests, from Eliot Gould, a popular first season host, to Keith Richards, Jack Nicholson, Candace Bergan, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray and on and on, all appeared as an homage to the original years. They were part of something big.
The reader has to suffer through several more paragraphs of this pointless analysis until we get to the subject of Dunn's angst.
I'm not a fan of stunt casting, and Donald Trump has stunt cast himself as a presidential candidate.
Shortly afterward, Dunn takes a shot at Ben Carson for the high crime of being a conservative which would also disqualify him from hosting SNL in her view:
...he lowered the bar for creepizoids like Ben Carson, who admits to going after people with bats, bricks, boards, and a hammer when he was a kid, and who tried to stab a friend when he was fourteen. He has not been asked how he overcame such behavior yet, nor what keeps him in his seemingly trance-like state now.
When is Ben going to host SNL?
We now return to her main obsession, The Donald:
Was I disappointed that Trump was going to host? Yes, but not surprised. The host of Saturday Night Live is still perceived as an endorsement, and what else can it be? If I was currently on the job I'd have trouble making Trump look good or funny or even worse, harmless. That's not the job of any comedy troupe.
But it's really all about ratings, and finding a host can be difficult when who you are looking for has to be trending.
... Yes, he's a bigot, of course. And he can't do any of the things he says he can; build a wall between Texas and Mexico and charge it to Mexico or make deals with Putin. He can't "do something" about Muslims. And he can't take back his "rapists" remark regarding Mexican immigrants, legal or not. He can't disown the ungodly morons he's brought out of the woodwork touting his message. He can't be president because the president represents the Free World, not casinos and skyscrapers. He's never been an innovator when it comes to development anyway.
It's disappointing that Trump is doing his thing on a stage that has seen so much real talent over the years. His kind of comedy works best in a debate with the rest of the lightweights he's running with.
But, never-the-less, the applause sign will light up when Trump walks out on the SNL stage and the crowd will cheer, just like they cheered for Howard Beal in Network. The televised Republican debates have been so absurd that if Paddy Chayefsky were alive he wouldn't be able to satirize them.
Before returning to her sanity-challenged Trump bashing, Dunn has yet another completely besides the point flashback:
I find myself remembering only the great moments I experienced on SNL. Robin Williams' brilliant opening monologue after the Desert Storm invasion, standing just a few feet away from Roy Orbison as he sang "Pretty Woman", working with Dolly Parton and Mary Tyler Moore. I used to sit in the studio and listen to various musical guests sound check on Wednesdays, alone with the great voices of Tracy Chapman or Anita Baker bouncing off the walls of Studio 8H. Breathtaking. I also got to talk with Walter Peyton and Robert Mitchum.
Did you also notice Bill Murray drinking from the water fountain? Did you ever get to talk with Richard Widmark? Perhaps you flashed back to the time you boycotted the show along with equally nutty Sinéad O'Connor because you objected to Andrew Dice Clay hosting. Oh, back to Trump...finally.
Trump is a freak show and that's what SNL is promoting this week.
Before we continue with her Trump bash shtick, we are blessed with a Nora Dunn history lesson:
After the bombing on September 11th I tuned in live on Saturday night.
Really? There was a bombing on September 11? Perhaps she flashed back to the World Trade Center 1993 bombing.
She finally finishes up with her main obsession, after numerous pointless sidetracks, about why a happy Trump on SNL will make her sad, oh so sad.
The show is part of our collective conscious. Trumps' appearance will not be a shining moment, but it won't be the first one that doesn't glow. He's a lout, a boor, and a jerk, but he's trending. I'm not sure what can be done without insulting him, and do we really make fun of people to their faces now? It's supposed to be behind their backs. Making fun of Sarah Palin while she was right there was awkward, at best. It didn't go over.
SNL isn't the same, but how could it be? Things change. When it comes to Trump's hosting skills this week, I wouldn't expect much. His appearance doesn't really matter, and that's the biggest disappointment of all.
One expects that the more fun Trump has hosting SNL this weekend, the more depressed Nora Dunn will become. In fact, we don't have to wait until Saturday to see Trump enjoying himself. We already have a preview video below. Watch it, Nora, and try not to angrily punch your pillow too hard.
