Larry David had plenty of reasons to join the Saturday Night Live cast again this past weekend, but a proposition from a political action group provided him even more incentive.
David, who played Bernie Sanders in the opening SNL skit, cashed in on the group’s offer to pay $5,000 to the first person to heckle host Donald Trump about racial issues, Fortune reported Sunday .
The outburst came within minutes of Trump taking the stage for his opening SNL monologue. Flanked by Taran Killam and Darrell Hammond both dressed as the Donald, Trump was talking about the show when Larry David interrupted him by yelling out “you’re a racist.”
After Donald asked who said that, the camera cuts to a dressed-down Larry David. “Trump’s a racist,” he yells again. Then, Donald asked what Larry was doing.
“I heard if I yelled that, they’d give me $5,000,” Larry David said, shrugging his shoulders.
“As a businessman, I can fully respect that,” Trump replies. “That’s okay.”
The PAC who offered the reward, Deport Racism, offered the money as a means to have their story and name make national headlines. It worked, providing the group a platform to explain the reasoning for offering anyone — including Larry David — the chance to collect an easy $5,000 during SNL .
“This is a chance to turn Trump’s appearance on the show into a media story that addresses his racist comments against Latinos. Let’s show the world that attacking brown people is not the way to win the White House.”
The PAC held true to their word, according to a tweet from their social media account Sunday. Deport Racism wrote that whether it was a “joke or not,” the group would pay Larry David for his outburst on SNL .
#LarryDavid wins $5K “bounty” from https://t.co/PcIfWXCmnT for calling Trump RACIST on #SNL . Joke or not, it’s true pic.twitter.com/qHFJ3cYmQQ
— Deport Racism (@DeportRacism) November 8, 2015
Trolling Trump wasn’t the only reason Larry David was scheduled to appear on SNL . In the opening scene, the Curb Your Enthusiasm writer and actor played United States Senator Bernie Sanders during in a mock town hall debate setting.
Larry David’s Bernie Steals the Show Again as #SNL Mocks Hillary and MSNBC https://t.co/09CYK4fEAb pic.twitter.com/KV6giaH9ey
— FoxNewsInsider (@FoxNewsInsider) November 8, 2015
This wasn’t the first time that Larry David has played Sanders on SNL . In another episode this season, David blew up the internet with his impersonation of the Democratic presidential candidate. In the skit, David played opposite Alec Baldwin as Jim Webb and Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton.
Serving as the SNL host, Donald Trump provided some “GIF-able” moments, according to an article by the Inquisitr . Included in those were a video short where Trump and Martin Short danced to Drake’s smash hit “Hotline Bling,” an opening monologue featuring Larry David’s racist declaration with two impersonators, and a segment featuring mean “live tweets” from Trump.
NBC was cognizant of Trump’s time on the program , according to a Variety report. SNL only allowed the host 12 minutes, which is roughly half of the air-time given to other hosts this season. The reason for SNL watching his time closely was to avoid any issues with the “equal time” rule that media outlets observe with political candidates.
The article pointed that the time given to Hillary Clinton earlier this year could make up for the potential “equal time” rule because, as a Democrat, Clinton is the opposite party as Trump. Clinton earned rave reviews for her SNL appearance in the season-opening show, playing a bartender named Val in the same segment as her impersonator, Kate McKinnon.
While the buzz before the show may not have been about Larry David, he helped to create the highest ratings for SNL in several years , according to Entertainment Weekly .
What did you think of the performance by Larry David on SNL ? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
[Image via Theo Wargo/NBC]