Saturday Night Live has drawn attention after making a dementia joke about Donald Trump’s dancing during its town hall appearance last week.
The NBC show featured clips of the former president playing various tunes at the music-heavy 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 “surprised that Harvey Weinstein was duped” on a recent podcast episode, juxtaposed with clips of Kamala Harris giving serious speeches.
Spectators applauded the humor Twitter/UNKNOWN. ‘Great to see SNL fun again!!’ one person wrote, while another said, “SNL nailed it.”
Reactions to Donald Trump’s music-laden town hall in Pennsylvania include a cease and desist from one singer and praise from another.
‘The sickest thing about the night on #SNL was that they played an actual tape of DonOLD Trump doing his insane swing routine at what was supposed to be a Q&A event that SNL described as SPECIAL!’ another viewer wrote.
“Holy shit, SNL,” said another.
Songs played for the audience at Trump’s town hall included Pavarotti and James Brown. And finally, inevitably, the townspeople singing ‘YMCA’
Trump decided to break up the town hall after several people suffered medical emergencies, at one point declaring “let’s listen to music” before playing 40 minutes of songs.
One artist who did not enjoy listening to his music was singer Rufus Wainwright, whose cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ from the Shrek 2 soundtrack appeared.
Wainwright confirmed that Cohen’s estate’s publisher sent the letter.
The singer, 51, posted a longer statement on social media condemning Trump.
‘Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ has become an anthem dedicated to peace, love and the acceptance of truth. “Over the years, I have been extremely honored to be associated with this ode to tolerance,” he wrote.
“Seeing Trump and his followers commune with this music last night was the height of blasphemy,” he continued, while declaring himself “supporting Kamala.”
He hoped that “perhaps by actually inhabiting and listening to the lyrics of Cohen’s masterpiece, Donald Trump might experience a glimmer of remorse for what he has caused.” I’m not holding my breath.
However, Village People’s Victor Wilson, who had previously protested Trump’s use of his music, now says he can see the positives.
Trump’s use of ‘YMCA’ has greatly benefited the song. “For example, when Trump started using ‘YMCA,’ the song shot back up to No. 2 on Billboard’s digital chart,” he told TMZ.
Wilson, who also supports Harris, says he no longer wants to stop Trump from using him.
