Republican Viewers Slam ‘SNL’ for Mocking Trump Supporters: “The L Stands for Lame”

If Saturday Night Live really is trying to court conservative viewers, they’re not doing a great job. This week, the NBC comedy opened with a sketch set an an Albuquerque, New Mexico rally that poked fun at Trump supporters who blindly “worship” the president. As you can imagine, right-wing viewers weren’t too happy with SNL‘s cold open, which many believed “mocked” and “belittled all Trump voters.” Wrote one viewer, “This week on SNL the L stands for Lame.”

This week’s cold open took on Trump’s frenetic rallies. Standing before a crowd of supporters in Albuquerque, Alec Baldwin’s Trump uses a map to show the need for a border wall and rails against the “deep state conspiracy” to impeach him. “Tonight, I’d like to bring up some of my loyal followers to explain what’s really happening in this country,” he says. First up is Cecily Strong, a woman wearing a “Keem Amarica Greab Agrain” shirt that she claims was “taken verbatim” from one of the president’s tweets. Her character insists that Trump is “under attack” due to a “deep state lizard conspiracy,” which involves every major governmental organization: “The CIA, the FEI, the MIC, the KEY, and the MOUSE.” Trump then introduces a biker, who insists that “all us bikers, we’re gonna ride” if Democrats try to impeach the president.

After hearing from a gun-waving Aidy Bryant, who insists that the president is “the one true white lord,” things take a different turn. Pete Davidson appears as an ISIS member who was “a prisoner in Syria until last week,” when Trump freed him. “I just wanted to say, thank you for bringing jobs back to ISIS,” says Davidson. “And I promise that I will make ISIS great again!”

In a totally unsurprising turn of events, conservatives didn’t enjoy Saturday Night Live‘s sketch — as well as the rest of the episode. “SNL also chose to belittle all Trump voters,” wrote one viewer. “This week on SNL the L stands for Lame,” tweeted another viewer. “Everything from Weekend Update to the end was just awful, unfunny & poorly executed.”

On Sunday, CNN Opinion writer Dean Obeidallah also expressed his disappointment with the sketch, writing, “SNL slammed Trump supporters — painting them, collectively speaking, as complete buffoons. That depiction furthers the right’s long-standing claim that the entertainment industry has contempt for conservatives.” Obeidallah went on to say that SNL also made a mistake in positioning “Trump as the reasonable person” at his rally, as “nothing could be further from the truth.” It didn’t take long for Alec Baldwin to find the CNN op-ed. “Don’t report about comedy anymore,” Baldwin told Obeidallah (via his Hilaria and Alec Baldwin Foundation account).

Watch SNL‘s Trump rally cold open in the clip above. For more on the Chance the Rapper-hosted episode, read our recap.

Where to stream Saturday Night Live