Larry David heckles Donald Trump, reprises Bernie Sanders on ‘Saturday Night Live’

Donald Trump’s “Saturday Night Live” appearance went off without a hitch, despite dozens of demonstrators demanding NBC drop the USA presidential hopeful from the “SNL” lineup.

The Trump show was the highest rating for SNL since January 7, 2012, when an episode hosted by retired basketball star Charles Barkley pulled in a 7.0 rating, said the Comcast Corp.-owned network.

Official numbers will be released by Nielsen later in the week.

In the end, the anticipation far outpaced – trumped, you might say – the reality.

The problem seems to stem from the type of humor injected in the November 7 episode.

Trump kicked off the 90-minute show with an opening monologue in which he poked fun at himself with the help of “SNL” performers Taran Killam and Darrell Hammond.

The show made reference to that controversy when comedian Larry David, in an obvious send-up, called out “Donald Trump is a racist!” to an apparently unfazed Trump. The show took its shots at Trump in the first sketch after the monologue, which imagined the year as 2018, Trump in the White House, and the many unlikely things he’s promised on the campaign trail having come true.

“Viewers tuned in to see a joyless, almost unfunny show, which ended in a curtain call with Mr. Trump and the cast that played like a hostage video”, wrote New York Times television critic James Poniewozik. When the camera’s focus returned to Trump, he showed that he was unaffected by it. So who is the joke really aimed at?

“Even with expectations lowered to bargain-basement level, this week’s show was a dumpster fire… there have been reports that Trump vetoed skits for being too ‘risque, ‘ but the problem with this episode wasn’t a failure to push boundaries, but rather a failure to craft skits with punchlines” Daniel Fienberg wrote.

As for the episode itself, it wasn’t good.

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