When you are parodying a real person for a comedy program, it can be a fine line between satire and outright mockery, and that line gets even finer when the health of the person in question is not in peak condition. Saturday Night Live famously has actor Alec Baldwin portray Donald Trump, but in light of Trump’s recent health concerns, some felt that commentary on the president should have been skipped this weekend.
Alec Baldwin has been portraying President Trump on *Saturday Night Live* since 2016.
His parody of the then-presidential candidate was extremely popular, although many of Trump’s supporters at the time did not find it particularly accurate.
The signatures of Baldwin’s version of Trump include a blonde wig, fake tan, and a nasally vocal impression.
Donald Trump himself has not been a fan.
Trump has tweeted about Alec’s portrayal numerous times, including once where he wrote , “Alec Baldwin, whose dying mediocre career was saved by his terrible impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing me was agony. Alec, it was agony for those who were forced to watch.”
The cold open on *Saturday Night Live* on October 3 took aim at the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump that took place on September 29.
On October 2, however, the president announced that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, had both tested positive for COVID-19, and have been in treatment ever since.
Alec Baldwin has now spoken out against criticisms that he should not have been parodying the president while he’s in recovery from the virus.
There were many people who were not pleased to see the president being mocked despite his health status.
“How funny would it be to you if you or you your family got covid?” asked one fan on Instagram , while another wrote, “So disrespectful I don’t think being President is any easy task and I don’t see you up there protecting our country!”
“Is this really something to joke about?” asked one fan.
“In poor taste. You both have shown your true colors. I’m ashamed of you,” one fan commented. Another added, “Not good to make fun of someone who is sick and in the hospital.”
Not everyone was upset, however.
Some fans stood up for Alec, writing, “Some of these comments, geez, people calm down it’s comedy! I wish the people commenting on how cruel or disrespectful this is would be as vocal about Racism!”
“It’s tough to do the show normally, but everyone really pulled it off,” Alec said of the increased precautions due to the pandemic.
“Everybody is masked, everyone has a shield, even the cast has masks and just pulls them off as they do a scene,” Alec explained.
He then spoke about those who felt it was disrespectful to parody President Trump on the show while he was sick with the coronavirus.
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Alec defended the decision to have Trump in a sketch on the show.
“If there was ever the suggestion that Trump was truly, gravely ill and people said ‘Trump is really in trouble,’ I bet you everything I have that we wouldn’t even get near that in terms of the content on the show,” Alec explained.
“We only have the word of the White House and they have all been saying he isn’t in any danger,” he added.
“We thought the debate was something topical, and we didn’t have anything with him in a hospital bed, but we had the debate,” Alec also said in the lengthy video in defense of the decision.
“You’d have to have a very good reason to avoid that, topicality-wise.”
“Nobody thought that they were mocking somebody’s illness by doing that,” Alec continued, explaining that they would have changed the sketch if that were the case. “They would have done something else. I’ve seen that happen before.”
What do you think?
Was it fair game to include a sketch about the debate given the president’s health status, or should the show have left it out entirely? Let us know how you feel in the comments below!
