‘SNL’: Meet Taran Killam’s Donald Trump

Donald Trump feels less like an actual human being and more like a comedic monster dreamed up in the SNL writers room, so bringing him into the sketch comedy fray should have been easy. Heck, casting the generally brilliant Taran Killam as the loudmouthed Presidential hopeful is just about perfect. So how did it work out?

Killam makes a fine Trump, perfectly capturing that bullish voice and that puckered resting face that looks like he just ate something sour (or is just thinking about a poor person and / or an immigrant). At this point, he’s one of SNL’s most senior impressionists, the guy tasked with coming up with a take on just about anybody in the public eye. Killam has become the new Bill Hader and he’s making it look easy.

If only the jokes were up to snuff! Trump is so prone to saying outrageous and horrible things in real life that it must be hard to actually craft material that doesn’t simply sound like something the actual man said last week. The resulting sketch is amusing, but never uproarious, with Cecily Strong’s Melania Trump trying to prove to America that her husband isn’t a buffoon and the Donald himself constantly proving her wrong. It’s a shaky start for two characters who are probably going to be mainstays on the show this season. We’ll cross our fingers and hope things get better soon.