Leslie Jones Mocks Donald Trump For Complaining That Saturday’s Episode Of ‘SNL’ Made Fun Of Him
Leslie Jones mocked Donald Trump for complaining that Saturday’s episode of Saturday Night Live made fun of him, pointing out to the president that the episode was a rerun from December 2018.
As Yahoo Entertainment reports, on Sunday Trump posted a three-part series of tweets in which he complained about the long-running NBC show “knocking the same person (me)” without presenting “the other side.” He then suggested that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should “look into” SNL and other late-night talk shows for being unfair to him, and touted his 52 percent approval rating (which he doesn’t actually have, according to any poll).
Saturday’s episode was a rerun from December 15, 2018.
Trump also complained about Saturday Night Live making fun of him in a tweet the day after the episode originally aired.
“A REAL scandal is the one sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live. It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion?”
Leslie Jones, formerly a writer and now a regular cast member on the show, wasn’t having it. In an Instagram post Sunday, she reminded Trump that he was complaining about an episode from three months ago.
“This guy is an idiot!! It was a rerun you moron!! #lordhelpusplease”
Trump has had a love/hate relationship with Saturday Night Live and NBC for a couple of years now. Trump was at one time one of the network’s most valuable properties, with The Apprentice and then appearances on SNL (in 2004), The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and others.
Trump’s repeated claims that the FCC should “look into” negative coverage of him on late-night talk shows, and that their coverage isn’t legal, are not actually going to go anywhere.
As Freedom Forum Institute explains, shows like Saturday Night Live and other late-night talk shows aren’t news broadcasts; rather, they’re a parody and/or satire. Both such forms of expression are protected by the First Amendment’s guarantees of the right of free speech.
“Satire and parody have served for generations as a means of criticizing public figures, exposing political injustice, communicating social ideologies, and pursuing such artistic ends as literary criticism. Satirists usually find themselves subjected in turn to criticism, contempt and, sometimes, lawsuits. The First Amendment protects satire and parody as a form of free speech and expression.”
