Saturday Night Live has raised eyebrows after making a dementia joke about Donald Trump’s dancing during his town hall appearance last week.
The NBC show presented clips of the former president jiving to various tunes at the music-laden event in Pennsylvania, before comedian Colin Jost joked that the tunes were part of a compilation called Now! That’s What I Call Dementia Vol 1.
The SNL segment also showed Trump making questionable comments including that he was ‘amazed Harvey Weinstein got schlonged’ on a recent podcast episode, juxtaposed with clips of Kamala Harris making serious speeches.
Viewers applauded the humor on Twitter/X. ‘Good to see SNL funny again!!’ one person wrote, while another said: ‘SNL nailed it’.
Reactions to Donald Trump ‘s music-laden Pennsylvania town hall include a cease-and-desist from one singer and praise from another
‘The sickest burn of the night on #SNL was them playing actual tape of DonOLD Trump doing his demented swaying routine at what was supposed to be a question and answer event that SNL described as SPECIAL!’ another viewer wrote.
‘Holy s*** SNL,’ another said.
Songs played for the audience at Trump’s town hall included Pavarotti and James Brown. And finally, inevitably, the Village People singing ‘Y.M.C.A.’
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Trump decided to break up the town hall after multiple people suffered medical emergencies, at one point declaring ‘let’s listen to music’ before playing 40 minutes of tunes.
One artist who didn’t enjoy hearing his music was singer Rufus Wainwright, whose cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ from the Shrek 2 soundtrack was featured.
Wainwright confirmed that the publishing company for the estate of Cohen has sent the letter.
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The singer, 51, released a longer statement on social media condemning Trump.
‘The song ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen has become an anthem dedicated to peace, love and acceptance of the truth. I’ve been supremely honored over the years to be connected with this ode to tolerance,’ he wrote.
‘Witnessing Trump and his supporters commune with this music last night was the height of blasphemy,’ he continued, while declaring himself ‘all in for Kamala.’
He hoped that ‘perhaps in inhabiting and really listening to the lyrics of Cohen’s masterpiece, Donald Trump just might experience a hint of remorse over what he’s caused. I’m not holding my breath.’
However, Victor Wilson of the Village People – who has previously protested Trump using his music – now says he can see the positives.
‘Trump’s use of ‘Y.M.C.A.’ has greatly benefited the song. For example, when Trump started using ‘Y.M.C.A’ the song shot back up to #2 on Billboard’s digital chart,’ he told TMZ.
Wilson, who is also supporting Harris, says he no longer has any desire to prevent Trump from using it.