Alec Baldwin Actually Agrees After Rob Schneider Smacks Down His SNL Trump Character
Other than among liberals consumed by hatred for President Donald Trump, Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin’s ridiculously mean-spirited portrayal of the 45th president on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” has left much to be desired.
Former SNL cast member Rob Schneider recently stated as much in an interview with the New York Daily News. He revealed that he didn’t find Baldwin’s impression to be “comical” at all because it’s far too obvious that Baldwin “clearly hates the man he’s playing.”
Perhaps surprisingly to some, Baldwin actually agreed with that assessment from Schneider, and noted as much publicly in a Twitter post.
The actor tweeted, “I must admit, @RobSchneider does have a point,” with a link to an article covering Schneider’s comments.
While Baldwin may actually agree with some of Schneider’s argument, it’s unclear whether he would feel the same way about everything Schneider said regarding his portrayal of Trump.
Schneider had compared Baldwin’s Trump impression to that of ex-SNL star Dana Carvey’s impersonation of former President George H.W. Bush, which poked fun without being overly harsh and abusive.
“Carvey played it respectfully,” stated the former SNL co-star. “To me, the genius of Dana Carvey was Dana always had empathy for the people he played, and Alec Baldwin has nothing but a fuming, seething anger toward the person he plays.”
All of the discussion about Schneider’s Daily News interview compelled him to take to Twitter over the weekend to clarify his remarks, not to take them back or apologize but to more or less double down and expand upon them in greater detail.
“Comedy needs surprise. It must keep the audience guessing. It should not be afraid to shock or offend. It should attack the powerful and arrogant. But it must come from a place of inspiration where it made the writer laugh,” he wrote in one post. He added that being funny should take precedence over all else, and stated, “The loyalty should reside in the joke, not in some political identity.”
“Much late night comedy is less about being funny and more about Indoctrination by comedic disposition,” Schneider said in a second clarifying post. “People aren’t really laughing at it as much as cheering on the rhetoric. It no longer resembles a comedy show, it’s more like some kind of liberal Klan meeting.”
In a third post, Schneider railed against the “us versus them” mentality that resides in the hearts and minds of far too many people — on both sides, honestly. He lamented how “demonizing and silencing” has taken the place of open debate. He also expressed concern over a Hollywood “blacklist” for conservative voices and championed free speech, which allows comedians like him to make fun of people on both sides of the aisle.
Rob Schneider has hit the ball out of the park, not just in his criticism of Alec Baldwin’s non-comedic portrayal of Trump — with which Baldwin appears to actually agree — but on the mean and spiteful politicization of comedy itself. We also find ourselves in agreement with his assessment.
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