5 Years Ago: Trump Hosts SNL
Today in 2015, a racist bigot hosted Saturday Night Live
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.