Saturday Night Live doubles your Baldwin, as Donald Trump visits Bill O’Reilly
While Alec Baldwin has been, let’s call it noncommittal, about continuing on as Saturday Night Live’s resident Donald Trump, last night’s Louis CK-hosted episode saw season 42’s permanent guest star take the joint over. Apart from appearing in the requisite “Donald Trump makes a fish-mouth while saying stupid and horrible things” cold open, Lorne Michaels turned over a second sketch to Alec Baldwin… and another Alec Baldwin. Eschewing the slew of no-doubt very available brother Baldwins for the idea of a Bill O’Reilly interviewing Donald Trump O’Reilly Factor sketch, Michaels instructed his Baldwin-loving crew to use some TV magic to have Baldwin-O’Reilly and Baldwin-Trump commiserate over their distressingly similar sexual harassment allegations/lawsuits/settlements.
Sure, Alec Baldwin’s Bill O’Reilly isn’t especially on-point vocally, but the makeup and belligerent head-tilt are there, his O’Reilly dodging the mounting proof of his misogynistic creepiness and the multiplying number of fleeing O’Reilly Factor advertisers to, instead, hammer away at Obama administration conspiracy theories. Asking a woman correspondent (speaking while pixilated, voice-disguised, and ensconced safely on location) if favorite recent target Susan Rice’s denials were a solid ”no,” or just the sort of no where she really means “convince me,” Baldwin’s O’Reilly successful creeps everyone out. And that’s before Baldwin’s Trump pops in via satellite (although not for his protection, seemingly) to defend his good buddy Bill against whatever those women are alleging. (Trump hasn’t really read up on the details, but is absolutely sure that the multiple women are lying, being women and all.)
One might quibble with Baldwin’s impressions, or the fact that a typically overcrowded Saturday Night Live ensemble is being crowded right off the stage by not one, but two, Alec Baldwins. But the sketch—which notes that Trump leapt to O’Reilly’s defense mere days after proclaiming April Sexual Assault Awareness Month—will no doubt engender twice the amount of Baldwin-hate from the actual Donald Trump. Which, if nothing else, might keep him pushing Twitter buttons rather than missile launch buttons for most of Sunday.