Headline I Am Not Going To Click On

On ‘S.N.L.,’ Donald Trump Tries His Hand at Wordle 

Over at the NYTimes (I was reading John McWhorter language essays), the sidebar of articles they hope you might read is topped with the above at present. I don't know whether Saturday Night Live taking the opportunity to make fun of Donald Trump yet again - he is no longer president, remember - was a key part of the show and a continuing topic of theirs this season or a one-off nostalgic bit of humor. I am not particularly calling SNL out. Though I will remind folks that even I, who have not watched even clips of the show in years had heard that throughout Trump's presidency they could joke about little else. I suspect this is ongoing, though likely less than it was a year or three years ago. 

Yet either way, the Times thought it a hoot to write it up and feature it. They know their audience, I imagine.  When I was in theater and doing comedy, the formula was that audiences would reliably laugh at food, sex, and money jokes, even if the show and the performance were weak. This may be the equivalent: "Tell this audience that Trump is stupid and boorish.  They'll eat that up."

They miss him, it seems.

I have read the defense of the media still focusing on him that if he didn't keep putting himself forward, if he would just go away, they would stop. For serious reporting, that may be so.  But for making fun of him...you mean like they stopped making fun of Nixon and Reagan? Hmm. I have lived long enough to know better.