Larry David Screams “You’re A Racist” At Donald Trump During An Otherwise Toothless ‘SNL’

Donald Trump has been bragging about how, if he becomes president, Americans will have so many wins that we’ll grow tired of winning.

If last night’s SNL is what Trump’s version of winning looks like, we’re in for an awkward Trump presidency.

Prior to last night’s show, Latino groups called on NBC to disinvite Trump from hosting due to what they consider a racist bent to his campaign, including his statements comparing Mexican immigrants to rapists. Then, last week, the Deport Racism PAC said it would give $5,000 to anyone in SNL’s audience who screamed “Deport racism” or “Trump is a racist” during the live show.

So with NBC on high alert, SNL’s writers had to figure out how to make all this funny. But with emotions so highly charged around Trump’s candidacy, the result felt like trying to tickle someone as you’re shocking them with a taser.

Trump’s monologue, on the heels of another winning appearance by Larry David as Bernie Sanders in the cold open, had him declare his virtues up front in an attempt to parody his narcissistic image, but segued oddly into a bit about his long-running (old) feud with Rosie O’Donnell.

After Taran Killam and SNL announcer and former cast member Darrell Hammond brought out their Trump impressions, a familiar voice screamed from the sidelines, “You’re a racist!” A disruptor, come to claim her bounty? Nope. Larry David, getting a jump on the controversy – and helping NBC neuter it before it took hold – in what he claimed was an attempt to win the $5,000.

But the problem with this jocularity is that claims against Trump are not the equivalent of some minor scandal. The concerns about a possible Trump presidency, including the building of a wall on our Mexican border and the deportation of 11 million people, are real – and, one might imagine, especially so amongst the apparently liberal-leaning SNL cast, writing staff, and audience.

The night’s first sketch showed just how tough a time the writing staff had in trying to make concerns over a Trump presidency funny – and, how little the live audience seemed to care for Trump.

A look at the end of a triumphant first term for President Trump, the sketch had the cast reviewing his successes as a run down of every outrageous thing he’s said or promised during the campaign. Putin is called a loser to his face, Americans are always winning, etc.

While one or two laughs hit – the reveal of Omarosa as a cabinet secretary, and the new national anthem featuring the lyrics, “It’s huge” – Trump himself got none here. But worse, his daughter Ivanka’s surprise appearance provided one of SNL’s more historically awkward moments, as her reveal got no applause, or any acknowledgment of any kind from the crowd. I’ve never seen that happen before to a surprise guest on SNL.

The sketch’s biggest laugh came when Beck Bennett emerged as the president of Mexico to give President Trump “a check for the wall.”

The laugh was indicative of how absurd the scenario was, but it’s also where the parody in the sketch folded in on itself. Mexico’s president handing Trump the check is funny because it’s preposterous. The notion of this happening in real life is as ridiculous as the notion of Cecily Strong, who plays Trump’s wife Melania, actually marrying the mogul.

And yet, it’s not a scenario created by the show’s writers. The ridiculous notions of Trump’s presidency presented in the sketch are Trump’s actual notions of, and promises for, his potential presidency. In effect, SNL could be seen as having attempted with Trump something similar to what they did with Sarah Palin – mock the candidate by presenting their outlandish pronouncements as they really occurred.

Except that’s not what SNL did. Unlike Tina Fey’s infamous Sarah Palin sketch, where she used Palin’s real text to portray the candidate as unqualified for office, the Trump sketch plays his pronouncements as parody. This brings Trump in on the joke, allowing him to laugh at these wild statements as if he were an outsider, and not the man who actually said that if elected president, he’ll deport 11 million people.

During his interaction with Bennett, fictional President Trump thanks him for “making Telemundo all English for me.” The statement gets a reaction, but it’s not a familiar one – not a laugh, not a boo, not applause. The noise from the live audience is something of a confused mumble – the beginning of a laugh, or a boo, or a collective sigh, that the crowd collectively swallowed before it could get out, as if preferring to simply forget it and move on, lest they open Pandora’s Box and make the night more unpleasant than it already was.

It says everything that the night’s one legitimate shot at Trump —a broadside by Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che, reminding us that Trump’s an Obama-birth-certificate truther— was said in a conspiratorial whisper out of one side of his mouth with his hand hiding his lips, as if afraid to reveal the cast’s true feelings about their host.

This was comedy on eggshells, and it’s no way to do comedy.

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Larry Getlen is the author of the book Conversations with Carlin. His greatest wish is to see Stefon enjoy a cheeseburger at John Belushi’s diner. Follow him on Twitter at @larrygetlen.