SNL brilliantly calls out Ivanka Trump for providing cover for her father in a parody perfume ad called "Complicit."

Courtesy of CNN:

This sketch truly makes a point that many in the mainstream media won't, namely that Ivanka is complicit in her father's use of racism, sexism and bigotry to win and extend his stay in the White House. 

"SNL" cleverly utilized a parody of a commercial for a high-end designer fragrance to make this point. It opens with Ivanka, played by host Scarlett Johansson, entering a room of people dressed in tuxedos and ball gowns, as a voiceover says, "Every man knows her name. Every woman knows her face." 

The partygoers all stop and look as the voiceover continues, "When she walks into a room, all eyes are on her. She's Ivanka." 

The commercial continues with glamour shots of Ivanka and then comes the first comedic bulls eye: "She's beautiful. She's powerful. She's ... complicit." We then hear, "She's a woman who knows what she wants. And knows what she's doing. Complicit."

I thought SNL was really good this weekend with some real laugh out loud skits (If you have not seen it yet I highly recommend Zoo Pornographer.) however when I saw this I knew it was going to be the one that everybody talked about this week.

We typically consider family to be off limits, but with the Trump's that is virtually impossible since they are all...well...complicit.

Amy Poehler and Tina Fey brought the ghosts of campaigns past to SNL last night.

"Also if it gets too hard just quit, who cares?"For the record Tina Fey's version of Sarah Palin is officially my favorite version of Sarah Palin.

I have little doubt that Palin herself is beyond thrilled that she was being referenced on SNL I imagine there will be some giddy Facebook comment sometime today.

P.S. Oh and there was also this rather brilliant cold opening last night. 

The good news about Donald Trump's SNL appearance is that there is really no good news about Donald Trump's SNL appearance.

So as I stated yesterday, I did not see a single moment of last night's SNL.

I have also avoided any videos of the show on the internet, and have tuned the station when cable news has wanted to talk about it. So essentially I have done significantly better at boycotting this show than I have keeping my pledge to stop eating cheese.

God I love cheese!

Anyhow I did a quick search this morning, and found that many of the people who DID watch really wish they would have joined my boycott.

Courtesy of the AV Club: 

Look, no one was going to be happy here. The political discourse surrounding this election is so entrenched and without nuance that the response to this episode will undoubtedly be strident and abusive, no matter where it comes from. (Let me show you the folder of messages I’ve gotten in response to the article I wrote about the upcoming show sometime.) The chances of this doomed pairing of host and show was, well, doomed, from the moment it was announced. But neither Trump nor the people at SNL rose to the challenge of presenting something thoughtful, or entertaining, or even just plain funny. Given an opportunity to express themselves in what, I maintain, is still one of the most unique, excitingly risky live TV shows of all time, neither camp raised the level of public debate, made a single memorable joke, or did anything but confirm my worst fears about what this show would be. Tonight’s episode was bad satire, bad comedy, bad TV. SNL isn’t great political comedy—it swings and misses more often than not, mainly because it doesn’t commit to the swing. But when it connects, it still has some power. An episode like this isn’t just failing to suit up. It’s throwing the game.

Courtesy of The Wrap: 

Saturday’s broadcast was an extension of “SNL 40” and of the franchise’s laziest, worst impulses. It’s telling that the most clever line of the night came not from anyone on the show, but from Stop Racism PAC, the group that offered the bounty to anyone who would interrupt the broadcast and had, before the East Coast feed had ended, promised to pay it to David for his scripted “Trump’s a racist” line. 

“Joke or not, it’s true,” the group said in a statement.

Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter: 

Appearing at either the very beginning or very end of at least three or four skits, plus a monologue that has to have been rushed through at a record pace, Trump hardly had any time to flail or succeed. Trump's funniest moment, and the only moment in which he attempted to move, came as he danced for 10 seconds in a parody of Drake's "Hotline Bling" video. It wasn't bad! Other non-political skits found Trump pretending to tweet mean things about the cast members participating in a not-funny skit, stumbling in as an opportunistic record producer in an already-dead family dinner dud and complaining that he didn't have enough time for his laser harp solos in a sketch in which he stumbled over his few lines, which wouldn't have worked anyway. 

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune: 

For weeks, people had fretted about Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, despoiler of a Chicago skyscraper and former NBC reality star, being given a chance to host "Saturday Night Live." Free advertising, they said. Unfair! 

But the show that aired Saturday was one of the genuine duds in the recent history of the NBC late-night warhorse, and that's saying something. "SNL" didn't seem to know what to do with Trump beyond, mostly, a string of late appearances in sketches that sapped whatever meager power they had managed to muster.

Courtesy of Yahoo TV:  

The only entity that came off worse than Donald Trump was SNL. Turns out, this really was just a craven move for ratings. There was no attempt by Lorne Michaels and company to use Trump as a critique of himself, no moment that did not feel vetted by the candidate. But the way this campaign season is going, the insulting, often repulsive content of this SNL show won’t matter. All that’s important to Trump — constant, pervasive ubiquity in the pop culture — was achieved. 

I don't think I have ever been more happy to have boycotted a show in my life. 

You know the problem with Donald Trump on SNL is that HE is the punchline. You cannot make effect jokes when the punchline is standing right in front of you the entire time. 

Now the only question is when will the Republicans see that as well?

(H/T to Politicususa.)

Hillary Clinton's charm offensive goes late night.

I think it is good for people to see Hillary laughing and interacting with people in a relaxed manner.

After all most of the time we see her giving speeches or responding to charges from the Right Wing.

Actually Fallon did address the email "scandal" last night as well:  

“What’s in the emails?” he asked. “Can you just say what’s in the emails? That’s all we want to know! If you’d tell us what’s in the emails, we’ll get over it!” 

Clinton explained that thousands of her emails from when she served as Secretary of State are already out in the open, adding, “Most people have gotten bored after really, you know, like 10 or 12, because they’re boring!” She joked that the “most significant” email to come to light was the one about getting gefilte fish into Israel. 

When Fallon described some of the emails as “top secret,” Clinton reiterated that “nothing that was sent or received at the time was secret,” but instead became classified retroactively. “The stuff that’s in [the emails], I think is really boring people, which kind of hurts my feelings,” she added. 

Fallon quickly shifted gears to say, “The headline should be: ‘Grandma knows how to use email.’ That’s amazing!” He then started asking the candidate about her campaign’s social media strategy.

Of course none of this will placate her critics who are looking desperately for something to derail her campaign, but for those of us who like her, or want to like her, this does help some.

Since when did SNL become an outlet for Fox News propaganda?

So earlier in the day I saw a post about this skit some website or another suggesting that it was great.

I did not read the whole thing because I didn't want the skit to be spoiled before I had a chance to see it. (#Alaskaproblems.)

But as I'm watching the damn thing I kept shaking my head and saying out loud, "WTF? That's not what happened at all!"

Think Progress noticed the same thing:  

“BILL: And if I pass the legislative test, then I wind up on the President’s desk… 

BOY: President Obama what’s the big idea? That bill was trying to become a law.” 

In the sketch, once the bill reaches Obama’s desk, he pushes the bill down the steps. But this is the opposite of what actually happened. Obama was desperate to see an immigration bill — of virtually any type — cross his desk. In May 2013, he reached a tentative deal with a bipartisan group of House lawmakers, which would have been substantially more conservative than the Senate bill. It was ultimately rejected by Republican House leadership. 

“BILL: Don’t you have to go through Congress at some point? 

EXECUTIVE ORDER: Oh that’s adorable, you still think that’s how government works.” 

The implication here is that presidents before Obama didn’t use executive action for major policy areas. In fact, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan both used executive orders to protect undocumented immigrants. In 1989, Bush’s order protected about 40% of the undocumented population, roughly the same percentage as Obama’s order.

Think Progress ends the article by saying that SNL is under no obligation to get their facts right in order to do parody, but I disagree with that.

Maybe back in the 70's SNL could be a little sloppy, and get by with it because their viewers were not nearly as well informed as viewers today. But in a world where they are competing with brilliant satirists like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and HBO's John Oliver, they need to cross their fucking 't's" and dot their fucking "i's."

Do you know how you know when you have really screwed the pooch while presenting a political parody? When freaking Ted Cruz is quoting you while attacking the President, that's how.

I have been pretty underwhelmed with SNL this season, but I thought I would give them a chance to his their stride.

Yeah well forget that shit now. I am done with them.