Is Trump still a laughing matter?

SNL writers, actors asking the question as new season arrives

The promotional video for the upcoming seasonopener of Saturday Night Live hit the Internet this week like a Star Wars trailer, with dramatic lights and pounding music. Kate McKinnon revealed her debate face as Hillary Clinton – and Alec Baldwin sat for a fitting of a Donald Trump hairpiece like Darth Vader being fitted for his helmet.

SNL, now in its 42st season, has frequently shaped how voters see their presidential candidates. In 2000, the show turned Al Gore’s focus-grouped phrases into punchlines; in 2008, some voters were left thinking that Sarah Palin, not Tina Fey, said “I can see Russia from my house.”

But this year may be different, and not just because of the well-documented entertainment value of Trump. The season opens at a time when the comedy world is engulfed in an angry debate about how to make fun of Trump – and whether some practitioners have given him a pass on his more objectionable stances. For some, Donald Trump isn’t funny anymore. And that has prompted some writers, actors and producers behind SNL to ask this question: what if he wins? And will anyone blame them if he does?

“The more you descend into his kind of incoherent sensibility, the closer you get to the truth of who he is,” said Baldwin, who initially hesitated to take a role previously assigned to SNL regular Darryl Hammond.

When he was a sideshow, it was funny. Now he’s the nominee, and it’s not funny. It’s agonizing.