With Alec Baldwin hosting last night’s SNL (for the record 17th time), there was plenty of Donald Trump-bashing to be had. Baldwin’s Trump himself popped up on The People’s Court, presumably the “court” the real Trump was referring to when he infamously tweeted “SEE YOU IN COURT” at the federal judges who blocked his bigoted “travel ban.” In addition, the Trump-heavy episode saw a return of Melissa McCarthy’s pugnacious, mendacious Sean Spicer (now with motorized attack-podium), and Leslie Jones made an equally boisterous pitch to replace Baldwin as Saturday Night Live’s resident Donald. (Lorne Michaels wasn’t buying it.)
But while Baldwin’s fish-mouthed, spray-tanned Trump is reliably amusing, it’s become fascinating to watch how the clearly not-Trump-head types at SNL come at the Trump administration from unexpected angles. Sometimes we go inside Trump’s head. Sometimes, the Trump women musically express how being in the Donald’s orbit isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. (Or is exactly all it’s cracked up to be). Tonight, the recent (if temporary) blackballing of noted Trump apologist, resident liar, massacre fabulist, and law-breaking infomercial pitch-woman Kellyanne Conway inspired a short film about just how dark thwarted fame-grubbing can get.
When Beck Bennett’s noted Trump-critic Jake Tapper returns to his high-rise apartment after denying Conway’s request to be on his news show, he finds Kate McKinnon’s nightie-clad Conway menacingly perched in his kitchen, clutching a knife, and acting, looking, and sounding a whole lot like Glenn Close’s scorned lover from Fatal Attraction. After slinkily trying to sway the stalwart Tapper (“You made up a massacre! We can’t have you on,” he protests), things get violent, McKinnon putting her signature crazy-eyed comic intensity to fine use. Finally terrifying Tapper into caving (“Do I look like Kayleigh McEnany? Then why are you trying to fuck me like Kayleigh McEnany?!”), Conway revels in her victory—before falling out the window and shattering herself on the sidewalk below. But not to worry. Kellyanne Conway’s lust for media fame sees her reassembling her mangled limbs like a slasher movie villain. It’ll take more than Jake Tapper and a multi-story fall to keep her off your TV.