SNL blew it with Trump tape…..
Saturday Night Live, you had one job, and you didn’t do it well at all…
This week saw the Republican presidential nominee at his most honest. The tape of him and a reporter for Access Hollywood talking about the way in which Trump has used his money and power to sexually abuse and dominate women was, and is, probably the most real version of what we all know Donald Trump to be, a misogynistic, crass, oversexed creep of a man, and all SNL had to do was run with that, and they didn’t.
Instead they did what they always do, they tried to make a joke of it. Now I understand that they are a comedy show, i get that. The difference here is that what he did isn’t funny at all. It’s disgusting and deplorable on every level. It is language that isn’t acceptable by anyone, anywhere, no matter who he or she is. It is vulgar and predatory at it’s core. It is a mindset that needs to wiped from our culture as soon as possible and SNL made it benign and funny.
We all knew that they were going to address it, they had to, and they had a massive audience to work with, and nothing, just a big barely funny dud. They did what society seems to always do with things like this, they softened it because we can’t seem to actually confront bastards like him when we have the chance. They made light of some of the most horrific language that I’ve ever heard a man use to describe his view of women and his predatory nature and it was ridiculous. They betrayed women and men alike.
The better approach for SNL, and for anyone discussing this situation, would be to treat it as the terrible and abusive speech that it is and rebuke it implicitly. They should have come out and done the exact opposite of what they did and what people expected by using the time and the audience that they had to take a real stand against predatory sexual assault. They should have called Donald Trump out for his hateful speech and disgusting behavior and instead they they tried to be funny. The problem with being funny about things like this is that it minimizes the vileness and the terrible message that speech like this sends to our nation, that somehow this is okay and acceptable, and it is not. Using humor to take on subjects like this actually blunt the topic and the impact of it instead of drawing attention to it. We did the same thing with Mike Tyson, remember him, the convicted rapist and abuser that we allow to make millions of dollars and gain fame by making movies and being famous, when we should have ended his career because what he did was terrible and unacceptable. Instead we told the whole country that what he did was fine because we think he’s funny and we love to let famous people get away with things that would destroy the lives of average people. That is exactly what we are doing with Trump. We are letting him minimize what he did and how he thinks and how he treats women because we think he’s funny and we love to let famous people get away with stuff…. It’s bullshit.
SNL should have taken the entire monologue time to issue a somber, harsh rebuke of Trump and of the type of language and the type of mindset that continues to plague the women of this world, and that needs to stop immediately and completely. They should have had all of the women in the cast stand defiantly on center stage and give Donald Trump, and everyone like him, a great big verbal fuck you. They should have taken a real stance against the twisted rape culture that has thrived within certain segments of our culture and they blew it. They could have made a real difference and instead they made it seem like a silly joke. It is not.
You blew it SNL…