Comedian Rob Schneider, himself an alum of the once-iconic show “Saturday Night Live,” ripped into the comedy series and actor Alec Baldwin for his mean-spirited portrayal of President Trump.
Schneider rose to prominence in the 1990s, perhaps SNL’s last period of solid quotable comedy, portraying such characters as ‘Tiny Elvis’ and ‘The Richmeister,’ an office worker who gave co-workers numerous annoying nicknames.
He would later star in his own comedy movies and appeared as a recurring character throughout many of Adam Sandler’s movies with the catchphrase, “You can do it!”
Now, while he’s certainly welcome to, Schneider would prefer that Baldwin not do his Trump portrayal … at all.
The comedian believes SNL is ruining a golden opportunity to capitalize on the comedy aspect of the Trump administration, simply because they hate the man.
“The fun of ‘Saturday Night Live’ was always you never knew which way they leaned politically,” he said in an interview with the Daily News. “You kind of assumed they would lean more left and liberal, but now the cat’s out of the bag they are completely against Trump, which I think makes it less interesting because you know the direction the piece is going.”
Today, I was asked about SNL & their political satire. I said I believe you must have empathy for those you play… pic.twitter.com/E5Y8VekN4M
— Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) April 27, 2018
Schneider said that Baldwin’s portrayal of the President is “hard to watch” for two reasons:
- Baldwin is an actor, not a comedian.
- Baldwin clearly hates Trump.
He compared Baldwin’s work with that of legendary comedian Dana Carvey, who respectfully played President George H.W. Bush many times throughout the ’80s and ’90s.
“Carvey played it respectfully,” Schneider said. “To me, the genius of Dana Carvey was Dana always had empathy for the people he played, and Alec Baldwin has nothing but a fuming, seething anger toward the person he plays.”
Rob Schneider nails it! SNL used to be a show I looked forward to (or at least the re-runs if I had a hot date lol) but now it is pure political garbage. I would rather watch paint dry, at least that doesn’t piss me off. https://t.co/uBiXoA5YHO
— Suzanne Sharer (@blondeandsmart) April 27, 2018
“I don’t find his impression to be comical,” Schneider added.
The comedian is a former Democrat turned Independent, and frequently offers salient points on his former party and their “fuming, seething” hatred of conservatives.
A year ago he came to the defense of Ann Coulter who had been blocked from delivering a speech to U.C. Berkley.
“UC Berkeley, after your done eliminating speech you don’t like & words you don’t like what’s next?” he wrote on Twitter. “Maybe add burning books to the curriculum.”
Democrats, he said in the new interview, are becoming increasingly intolerant while pretending to be the party of tolerance.
“Literally if you don’t go the party line — you’re out,” he explained. “There’s a real ugliness to it.”
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