Is this how it all began?
No, probably not. That would be giving Saturday Night Life too much credit. But presidential candidate Donald Trump’s guest-hosting SNL — 5 years ago today — definitely helped humanize the radical views of a racist bigot.
At the time, Trump was leading in the polls for the GOP primary, followed by Ben Carson. Still, most people doubted he could win.
Days before the show, a Latino PAC announced a $5,000 award to any audience member who yelled “Trump is a racist!” during the live broadcast. Larry David turned the reward into a bit, yelling exactly that in the opening monologue. (It’s on YouTube, if you can stomach it. Larry David did not collect his bounty.)
Predictably / regrettably / impossibly, the show drew its highest ratings in years with Trump. One might hope viewers tuned in to see the musical guest Sia, who turned down a selfie request from Trump.
The Donald has actually been the most-impersonated SNL subject of all-time. Phil Hartman, Darrell Hammond, Jason Sudeikis, Taran Killam, and Alec Baldwin all done impressions of him.
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200 Years Ago Today: Carrying all 22 states in the union, James Monroe was elected the fifth president of the United States.