This blog was originally published on Forbes as 6 Debate Moments Alec Baldwin Will Parody On ‘SNL’ Tonight on Saturday, October 22, 2016.
In the first moments following the end of the third presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Wednesday, NBC’s Brian Williams said, “some people will find this to be the Alec Baldwin Full Employment Act of 2016.”
The anchorman was referring to how Trump’s performance in the debate uncannily echoed the indelible characterization the actor has created in his Saturday Night Live impressions of the candidate’s performances in the first two debates.
Mr. Williams was not the only early sharp commentator about Wednesday’s debate. Another occurred shortly after an exchange between the candidates in which Hillary Clinton challenged Trump to “admit and condemn that the Russians are doing this [hacking], and make it clear that he will not have the help of Putin in this election.”
To which Trump replied, “He has no respect for her…she is playing chicken. Look…Putin from everything I see has no respect for this person.”
Hillary Clinton interjected, “Well, that’s because he would rather have a puppet as president of the United States.”
Trump shot back angrily: “No puppet! No puppet! You’re the puppet!”
At that moment, Jon Favreau, the former chief speechwriter for Barack Obama, tweeted, “He’s gone full Baldwin.”
Moments after that, Maureen Dowd commented on Mr. Favreau’s tweet on the New York Times online.
A puppet is perfect fodder for a performer and should be a key part of Mr. Baldwin’s SNL “cold open” tonight, but it is only the first of what are sure to be five more parody moments:
2. In the days leading up to the debate, Trump repeatedly claimed that the election is “rigged.” During the debate, Hillary Clinton accused him of having made the same claim before, citing primary races he lost, a court case, and then concluding with “There was even a time when he didn’t get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged against him.”
To which Trump replied, “Should have gotten it,” giving Alec Baldwin a golden opportunity to wave a golden Emmy statuette tonight.
3. In affirming his often-repeated position on immigration, Trump concluded, “We’re going to secure the border. And once the border is secured, at a later date, we’ll make a determination as to the rest. But we have some bad hombres here and we’re going to get them out.”
Alec Baldwin will undoubtedly extend his impression with the addition of a Spanish accent.
4. In 2013, when Marco Rubio infamously took a sip of water during a major address on television, he became the butt of this SNL skit. Trump also ridiculed Rubio’s water incident in this 2016 Republican primary speech. But on Wednesday, Trump himself took many sips of water, and opened the—um—floodgates to spoofing.
5. After Hillary Clinton described her position on Social Security, she concluded saying that her “payroll contribution will go up as will Donald’s…” then added, “…assuming he can’t figure out how to get out of it…”
Trump scowled and said, “Such a nasty woman!”
The nasty remark quickly went viral on Twitter, on the internet, and even on Spotify: Janet Jackson’s 1986 hit song, “Nasty,” spiked 250%. We just might even hear Alec Baldwin singing it tonight.
6. The most viral moment of the debate came when, in response to moderator Chris Wallace’s question as to whether Trump will accept the result of the election, he replied, “I’ll keep you in suspense.”
Suspense is a staple of any performer’s repertory and a natural for Alec Baldwin and his SNL colleagues to lampoon, but Tom Toles, the Washington Post’s editorial cartoonist, beat them to the punch yesterday with a sketch of Trump with the caption, “The ‘suspense’ is killing you.”
This blog was originally published on Forbes as 6 Debate Moments Alec Baldwin Will Parody On ‘SNL’ Tonight on Saturday, October 22, 2016.