Caitlin Logan: Satire must improve after mourning loss of its easiest target

It was the week that Leonard Cohen died and for many millions it was a time of mourning as the realisation hit that a campaign of hate and of outright lies had ­triumphed in the United States. The message from Saturday Night Live was clear: we are mourning with you. Entirely earnest and foregoing any attempt at humour, it made for emotional viewing, as just about everything does when you are in a state of shock and despair.

But it also reflected a failing which began before that night and continues to this day, not only within Saturday Night Live but in political satire more broadly, and in the American liberal establishment in which it is entrenched. That sketch, like so many others, put Clinton at the centre, aligning ­itself wholly and uncritically with her, a bona fide member of the political and ­economic elite. The implication was that this expression of collective grief was not only about Trump’s gain, but about Clinton’s loss.

In amongst all this, the bigger, harder questions were forgotten. For example, “how the hell did this happen?” (as a genuine enquiry and not just an expression of frustration), or “are the Democrats part of the problem?” and “does the political system need to change?”. These may seem like questions that lie beyond the scope of a mere sketch show. But good satire, much like journalism, should have something to say about power; and not only when the power lies with the people you don’t like.

As the biggest of its kind in America, ­attracting some of the most famous names in Hollywood as hosts and guest stars, ­Saturday Night Live is perfectly in-step with much of the mainstream approach to grappling with the complex issues facing its country’s political system. Which is to say, it doesn’t do a very good job of it.

A whole presidential term later and so much – oh, so much – has happened in between, and yet in many ways it feels like the Democratic establishment, many of their high profile supporters, and even much of the liberal-leaning media have remained stuck in place. Unable to comprehend anything beyond the horror that millions of presumably horrible people voted for a decidedly horrible man one day in ­November 2016, serious introspection or interrogation of the conditions which led to Trump’s success has been a rarity.

Represented through the format of comedy, this looks a lot like four years of skits about stupid, orange, tiny-handed, silly-haired Donald Trump; his creepy, slimy sons; his revolving cast of bizarre and panto­-villanlike staff; and the quintessential topless Vladimir Putin. This is the kind of satire that makes the viewer feel good about themselves, that reinforces their beliefs without ever really pushing them out their comfort zone.

Some journalism operates in the same way: leaning in to the presumed worldview of its readership or viewership, while doing little to challenge people to think about something in a different way – or to think of something they had never thought of at all.

Now that the Democrats are set to ­return to the White House, it seems unlikely that the party establishment will feel suddenly inspired to consider its flaws. But, having kept the world on the edge of its seat for days and winning some states by nauseatingly small margins while more people turned out to vote for Trump this time around, they really should be. This would be true even if America was not currently facing one of the highest death rates in a global pandemic which Trump has done next to nothing to address. That so many people thought this was preferable to Joe Biden as president is far from a resounding victory for the American centre.

Many people across America and the world beyond will be understandably ­relieved at the prospect of seeing Trump’s time as leader of one of the greatest ­economic and political powers come to an end. Like stepping off a high-speed roller coaster with the bolts popping out and sparks flying, most people will simply be glad to be on solid ground – regardless of whether they’ve ended up where they really wanted to be. This feeling of disorientation is bound to linger – and it’s not yet certain that Trump won’t find ways to make the transition difficult – but there will be no time to waste in asking the hard questions of those in power and those who seek it.

On 24 October, two weeks ahead of the 2020 election, Saturday Night Live finally produced a piece of political ­satire which (kind of) said something. In a mock ad from “Trump Addicts of America”, ­people who wanted to vote for Joe Biden explained their dilemma: they were ­worried they’d have nothing to talk about if Trump wasn’t president. One fictional voter admitted “my entire personality is hating Donald Trump”, while another said “I am really worried for [MSNBC host] Rachel Maddow. Like, what is she even going to talk about?”

One might reasonably pose the same question about political comedy writers – what will they poke fun at if not Donald J Trump and his latest Twitter word-vomit or daily scandal? But the answer should be obvious: everything else that ­happened before, during and after Trump’s ­presidency. I hate to break it to you, if you’d forgotten, but there’s a lot of bad stuff going on in America and most of it pre-dated 2016. The idea that there will be nothing to talk about now has got to be the funniest joke of the year.

It is a decent bit of satire though, ­because some American political ­pundits have ­become what could fairly be ­described as “Trump addicts”, focusing on the weird and (not so) wonderful utterances and actions of the President, sometimes at the expense of looking at the bigger ­picture.

The question that remains is whether, ­after the dust settles on Trump’s defeat, the same commentators and journalists can remember what it was like to ­scrutinise a relatively “normal” administration. Biden deserves no free passes for simply not ­being Trump, and it’s ­going to be more important than ever to ­meaningfully hold the institutions of ­power to account at a time when trust in them is plummeting.

It would be incredibly naive to think that anything is about to go “back to ­normal” — or that going “back” at all is in anyone’s interests bar those who have lost little in the past four years apart from the ability not to rage-tweet about the ­President of the United States at 2am. With the elation at the election results ill-concealed on news broadcasters like CNN and MSNBC, one can only hope that this will quickly subside into a ­sombre reflection of how much still needs to change.

At the time of writing, the ­Saturday Night Live episode following this ­election is yet to air. Aside from the ­obvious ­inclusion of John King and his magic wall (if they’ve got their finger on the pulse of Scottish viewers), it’s not ­difficult to imagine the impending scenes of Maya ­Rudolph and Jim Carey popping the champagne and singing something ­altogether more upbeat than any Leonard Cohen song. But while that might be fun to watch, I hope they’ll prove me wrong.

Otherwise it all just feels like part of the same sad script in which history is ­destined to repeat itself because of ­lessons never learnt by those who should have known better.