Aziz Ansari scored the highest-profile gig in television last night, hosting the first edition of Saturday Night Live since Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States one day earlier. The fact that he became the first person of South Asian descent to host SNL was certainly not lost on Ansari, who acknowledged Trump's big day by noting, “It’s pretty cool to know that he’s probably at home right now watching a brown guy make fun of him, right?”
From there, though, the monologue went in a completely different direction than consumers of recent SNL content might have expected. Despite a wealth of fodder, Ansari didn’t DRAG or SLAM or SAVAGE President Trump, but instead spoke passionately and eloquently about what comes next for Americans, whether they voted for him or not. The tens of millions who did vote for Trump should not be uncritically lumped together, he argued, since many of them probably did so with reservations or doubts. It’s the same logic that many employ to justify their enjoyment of Chris Brown, he explained—“I’m just here for the tunes.” Ansari went on to analogize Trump’s “Make America Great Again” to Brown’s “These Hoes Ain’t Loyal,” and I’m honestly not sure which of the two should be more offended by that comparison.
From there, Ansari moved on to those for whom the Trump presidency means that, at long last, they don’t need to pretend like they’re not racist anymore. His message to them: You have to go back to pretending.
Ansari closed not by goofing on President Trump’s boring inauguration or unhinged first day in office, but instead by addressing the man directly, imploring him not to embark on his traditional weekend tweetstorm of complaints about the show, but instead to write an “Islam Is Peace”-style speech denouncing the emergence of what Ansari termed the “lowercase KKK.” There was no punchline, really—it was a genuine plea for a gesture that, if it were to happen, might actually make a difference.
SNL deserves criticism for its unserious, kid-gloves treatment of Candidate Trump, but its coverage of President Trump—a man who has proven himself to be largely immune to even the sharpest, snarkiest attacks the media has to offer—will have to strike a different, more sincere note if it hopes to have any impact. Ansari's tack on Saturday was a good place to start.
