The long-running sketch comedy seriesSaturday Night Livemight still be airing new episodes on NBC every year, but as far as Rob Schneider is concerned, the show died several years ago. A veteran actor and comedian, Schneider is anSNLalum who’d spent several years on the show in the late 80s and early 90s. He is also known sometimes to be vocal with his political views as an outspoken supporter of the Republican Party.
Schneider recently spoke about what went wrong withSNLin a new interview withMediaite. The comedian names the cold open of the firstSNLepisode that aired after the 2016 presidential election as the moment of no return for the show. In the sketch, Kate McKinnon portrayed Hillary Clinton performing “Hallelujah” to address the presidential hopeful’s loss to Donald Trump. Schneider was disappointed that the skit was presented as dark and somber with no punchline at the end, suggesting that this was “indoctrinating” people politically.
“I hate to crap on my old show… I literally prayed, ‘please have a joke at the end.' Don’t do this. Please don’t go down there. And there was no joke at the end, and I went, ‘It’s over. It’s over. It’s not gonna come back.'”
It’s not the biggest surprise in the world to see that Schneider was not a fan of that “Hallelujah” sketch. He has also been critical of Alec Baldwin’s run on the show with his Emmy-winning portrayal of Trump.As Schneider previously told theNew York Daily News, it has more to do with making their political side known when he feels the show is better when it skewers politicians on both sides of the political aisle just as much as the other.
“The fun of Saturday Night Live was always you never knew which way they leaned politically. You kind of assumed they would lean more left and liberal, but now the cat’s out of the bag they are completely against Trump, which I think makes it less interesting because you know the direction the piece is going… Alec Baldwin is a brilliant actor… he’s not a comedian. I don’t find his impression to be comical. Because, like I said, I know the way his politics lean and it spoils any surprise. There’s no possible surprise. He so clearly hates the man he’s playing.”
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Rob Schneider Says the Same Thing Has Happened to Late-Night TV
Rob Schneider also feels that political humor has destroyed late-night comedy. With the late-night landscape dominated by left-leaning comedians like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, Schneider laments how there isn’t an “independent voice” included. He suggests that it would be more entertaining if the different talk show hosts had different opinions.
“you may take the comedic indoctrination process happening with each of the late-night hosts, and you could exchange them with each other. That’s how you know it’s not interesting anymore.”
Let’s not count on seeing Schneider returning as a host for the next season ofSNL.
