Review: Larry David over Donald Trump in a landslide

Maybe Larry David should run for president.

After all the agony and ecstasy, the promos and protests, Donald Trump may have hosted “Saturday Night Live,” but David owned it, first reprising his scary-great Bernie Sanders in the show’s opening skit and then giving voice, literally, to the hundreds gathered outside the NBC studio at 30 Rockefeller Center.

“You’re a racist,” a voice yelled as Trump mugged with Taran Killam and Darrell Hammond, both in Trump drag. “Trump’s a racist,” David shouted as the camera panned his way. “What are you doing Larry?” Trump asked.

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“I heard if I yelled that, I’d get $5,000,” David said with his signature joking-not-joking smirk, referring to DeportRacism.com’s offer.

“As a businessman, I can respect that,” Trump quipped in what was clearly intended as the bit’s punchline. But it was too late. Trump had been upstaged by the best of them. Later in the show, he may have “chosen” to live-tweet a sketch rather than participate in it, but it was David who immediately blew up on Twitter.

Not that it was a fair race; David and Trump may have graduated from the same “what’re you lookin’ at, pal?” charm school, but “Saturday Night Live” is a comedy sketch show and the one thing Trump has never claimed to be is a sketch comedian.

His Tax-Man-boogie in a skit mocking Drake’s dance moves notwithstanding (it was genuinely hilarious), Trump agreed to host the show, as he said in his (uncharacteristically brief) opening remarks, to prove he can take a joke, not that he can make one.

Good thing, too, because much of the show was devoted to testing this claim. In an effort, perhaps, to avoid equal time restrictions, the “SNL” writers limited Trump’s appearance to 12 minutes, and spent twice as many slamming him, sometimes with his participation, sometimes without.

A mocking depiction of the second year of the Trump presidency imagined the Mexican president handing over a check to pay for the wall while First Lady Melania re-did the Washington Monument in gold and Strong and Vanessa Bayer put their former porn stars to work in a faux ad for the candidate, who they continually referred to as Donald “Tramp.”

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For the record

9:41 a.m.: An earlier version of this column misspelled the first name of Melania Trump, Donald Trump’s wife, as Melinia while describing a “Saturday Night Live” skit that depicted her as the first lady.

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“Weekend Update” took several digs, including a reminder of Trump’s longtime insistence that President Obama was not an American, and an appearance by “Trump’s biggest supporter,” Drunk Uncle (Bobby Moynihan), who slurred slurs aimed at blacks, immigrants, women and Caitlyn Jenner.

Unfortunately, having got the elephant into the green room, no one knew quite what to do with him. With a few exceptions -- David, Drunk Uncle and Drake -- the show was flat and, at times, markedly strained. None of which had anything to do with Trump. Though not a comedian, he appeared game for anything, including a truly weird bit involving a “laser harp,” as was the cast. The fault lay solely with the writers who seemed unsure how to cope.

Indeed, with a cold open that featured Strong’s Rachel Maddow interviewing the Democratic candidates -- David’s Sanders, who got to make the famous “Live From New York” introduction -- “SNL” seemed so bent on appearing nonpartisan that it over-compensated and forgot its actual mandate: Be funny.

Fortunately, #LarryDavidin2016 just happened to be on hand, and he remembered.

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