        As November 8, 2016 approached, the media coverage of the election became frantic. Every media outlet, from local to global, was covering the race between a woman who was called crooked, and a man who was called a pig. As Donald Trump accused media outlet after media outlet of publishing false facts and fake news, he rampantly attacked one of them. A sketch comedy show had gotten under his skin. The amalgamation of political culture in satirical television in the 2016 election was unprecedented in terms of creating controversy and gaining popularity among viewers.

        While Alec Baldwin’s popular portrayal of Donald Trump began in 2016 with the coverage of the election, that was not the first time that he had been scrutinized on the show. Trump has been in the public eye for years. Saturday Night Live began portraying him on their show in 1988, when cast member Phil Hartman poked fun at Trump’s enormous fortune. His SNL screen time increased over the years, and those portraying him changed. In 1999, Darrell Hammond took over the role, and stayed as the show’s resident Trump impersonator for ten years. He satirically covered issues involving Trump from his questioning of the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s birth certificate, to Trump’s republican presidential primary appearances in 2011. The role was then taken on by both Jason Sudeikis and Tarren Killam for short periods of time, until Alec Baldwin took over the role for the 2016 election season.

        To say that these sketches rubbed Donald Trump the wrong way would be accurate. His first public response to the Baldwin portrayal came in the most typical Trump way; it was tweeted early in the morning. On October 16, Trump tweeted, “Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me. Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!” (qtd. in Robinson). While Trump found the show’s portrayal “boring and unfunny” the world did not react in the same way. An article found in the New York Post that was published on October 5, 2016 claims that the SNL debate sketches had generated a larger pool of viewers than the actual debates themselves. The sketch had gained upwards of 12.3 million views online in three says, topping the 11 million online views of the debate itself (Atkinson). Saturday Night live also experienced massive ratings spikes during the election cycle. Forbes published an article by Madeline Berg that stated

        Viewers… have been quite pleased with Baldwin's impression of Trump for the entire season. While Saturday's episode, the second following the election, saw a ratings drop (Nielsen has not released the final viewing numbers), the show remained the number one telecast of the night. So far, SNL has had its best season in 24 years, with an average of 11.3 million viewers in live-plus-seven-day ratings, which marks an increase of 26% from last year. 

These numbers clearly display the popularity of satire in politics, especially considering that the satirical takes on events and speeches were even more popular than the real political debates.

        Donald Trump’s attacks on the show’s integrity did not stop with a single tweet. He went on Twitter, using his typical form of expression, multiple times to berate the show with insults. From saying, “ @NBCnews is bad but Saturday Night Live is the worst of NBC. Not funny, cast is terrible, always a complete hit job. Really bad television!” (@realDonaldTrump) to stating, “Just tried watching Saturday Night Live - unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can't get any worse. Sad” (@realDonaldTrump).  These tweets became even more popular when Alec Baldwin personally responded to one of these tweets by stating, “…@realDonaldTrump Release your tax returns and I'll stop. Ha.” (@ABFalecbaldwin). Trump’s tweets were a clear indicator of how powerful these skits were at inciting an uproar within the political community and entertainment industry.  

        President Trump denounced a wide variety of media outlets as “fake news” and impassioned his supporters by claiming that every negative fact thrown at him was a lie and could not be trusted. While Saturday Night Live isn't even a news source, it is simply a show of sketch comedy, he was not afraid to add the show to his long list of untreatable news sources. His “fake news” accusations are still being made fun of, most recently with a sketch tearing apart his reactions to news coverage over the tragedy of hurricane Maria and the devastation in Puerto Rico. 

        While Donald Trump was vocal about his distaste for the show, its cast, and his portrayal, he was not the only candidate subject to the barrage of satirical criticism that Saturday Night Live created during the election season. Kate McKinnon’s portrayal of Hillary Clinton was a common a sight during the election cycle as well. McKinnon hilariously portrayed the former Secretary of State with a certain crazed grace that left audiences laughing as she bickered with Baldwin’s grumpy Trump impression. Hillary Clinton herself had a much different reaction to her portrayal than Donald trump did. She recently raved about McKinnon’s performance on the show.

        Clinton admitted that she teared up while watching the first SNL after the 2016 election,             which opened with McKinnon, as Clinton, sitting alone at a piano and performing             Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." "I wish I had her talent, she's just an amazing person,"              Clinton said of McKinnon. "And she sat there playing 'Hallelujah,' that was hard, that             was really hard.”  (Bilstein)

Clinton’s opinion on Saturday Night Live was not exposed as often as that of her opponent during the election, considering it was a positive opinion. She also appeared in a sketch on the show as a bartender named Val, with herself portrayed by McKinnon. McKinnon pokes fun at Clinton’s long decision process on the Keystone pipeline issue to which Clinton says “You know, nothing wrong with taking your time, what’s important is getting it right.” Hillary Clinton took these jests with stride and grace, even telling herself she “gives off such a young, cool vibe.”

        Politics and comedy are not at all estranged from one another. Saturday Night Live is no stranger to feeding on political controversy.  The election coverage itself was parallel to the 2012 coverage of  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, but the reactions from the candidates, or one candidate specifically, were unparalleled.  In 2012, neither candidate directly addressed the show and their impersonations on it during the election cycle. The reactions of Donald Trump to a comedy show remain incomparable to any other reactions by political figureheads in years past. 

While Saturday Night Live is one of the most widely recognized satirical shows, there are an abundance of other late night comedians that attacked the election, but mostly Donald Trump in particular. With the 2016 election causing much polarization, some comedians were destined to bash on the factors and events that lead to strong opinions being formed in the political realm. Samantha Bee, host of the late night show Full Frontal, attacked him with a creative vigor that was as proficient in expressing her opinions on him as it was in entertaining her audience. According to an article published in TIME by Richard Zoglin, “She talks fast, racing to pack a week’s worth of outrage into one high-voltage half hour. She has a air for the baroque insult, calling Donald Trump, at various times, a “tangerine-tinted trash-can re,” “sociopathic 70-year-old toddler,” “screaming carrot demon” and “America’s burst appendix.”” Other hosts made similar jabs at Trump. Seth Meyers of Late Night With Seth Meyers stated “ Trump is a Magic 8 Ball, shake it up and you get one answer, shake it again and you get something completely different.” Famous comedians such as Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, and Trevor Noah all took their turns expressing what they thought of the election and its seemingly laughable candidates. The idea that the hosts of these late night shows had political opinions and influence became acceptable and almost expected. “Political comedy on TV used to be a polite, easy- listening a air… [hosts] poked plenty of fun at political figures, but mainly for their personal foibles, both real and comically exaggerated: Gerald Ford’s clumsiness, Ronald Reagan’s age, Bill Clinton’s appetites. No obvious political agenda, nothing to end either side—just a gentle brew to help you process the day’s news and drift to sleep with a smile,” (Zoglin).  While Saturday Night Live’s jests garnered a reaction from Trump himself, the show was not the only place where the topic of the election had proliferated into the regular flow of content.

Although Trump was criticized harshly, he still won the election and became president. The efficacy of satire in this election coverage was shown in terms of popularity, but not necessarily in results, considering the candidate that was “roasted” the most won. Even though Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes, satirical politics impacting voting behavior is much harder to measure. 

In a political climate rooted in hostility and polarization, politically focused humor can be a deeply cathartic experience for audiences living in fear of their political future. President Trump’s reactive tweets, SNL’s outstanding number of viewers during the election coverage, and the consistency of comedic backlash at Trump represented the powerful effect of mixing politics and satire during the 2016 presidential election. Satirical television that addresses the political climate of the time has grown widely in recent years, and this increase caused a pivotal change in how we view satire. While American citizens may not view their politics as a joke, at least there is someone making jokes to allow the public to release some of their political anxiety through comedy. 

 