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In SNL’s celebratory 50th season, no one should be getting more accolades than Alec Baldwin. He’s SNL royalty, the guy who has hosted the show more times than Steve Martin, Tom Hanks or anyone else over the past half-century. So why do I start to groan every time I see Baldwin trotted out once again on the 30 Rock stage? It’s because he’s turned the show into a bully pulpit for his strident politics.
Last night, Baldwin appeared looking exactly like himself but affecting the persona of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new administration’s bizarro choice for the head of Health and Human Services. With a rasping voice that stops just short of choking, Baldwin hits all the expected RFK jokes — the brain worm, the vaccinations, the random encounters with dead animals. It’s a brief appearance, but it’s imbued with the same smug superiority that stained his four-year run as Donald Trump.
Team America: World Police had Baldwin figured out in 2004. As head of the unfortunate acronym that is the Film Actors Guild, the pompous Baldwin took the stage to congratulate himself: “One day you’ll all look at the world us actors created and say, ‘Wow, good going. You really made the world a better place.’”
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Even before his turn as Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock, Baldwin’s self-righteous politics had come to define him. He hosted a talk show on MSNBC and threatened to run for both Governor of New York and Mayor of New York City. Was he qualified? More than Arnold Schwarzenegger, he said. He’s never actually run, instead choosing to insert himself into campaigns as a celebrity endorser.
Why was Baldwin’s Trump so abrasive? Mainly because he was more interested in ridiculing the guy rather than satirizing him. His over-the-top histrionics thumped Trump without mercy. Maybe it was deserved, but bullying-as-comedy simply made Baldwin the other side of the Trump coin, every bit as unbearable as the man he was mocking.
It’s easy to forget that there’s a reason Baldwin hosted so many times — get him out of his political lane, and he’s a fabulous comic actor. Case in point: His Tony Bennett is one of the show’s all-time great celebrity impressions.
A Christmas parody of his Glengarry Glenn Ross was a gem, too, even with Baldwin hilariously flubbing his “Always Be Cobbling” punchline.
And somehow, he turned a seventh-grade joke about Schweddy Balls into a classic, mainly because the underplaying actor refused to wink at the gag.
But SNL went awry when Baldwin stopped being silly and turned the show into his personal soapbox. Baldwin returning for SNL’s 50th season was a no-brainer. But here’s a request to Lorne Michaels — let Baldwin sermonize somewhere else so he can focus on the funny.