Would Bobby Moynihan’s Drunk Uncle be supporting RFK Jr. these days? Would he have a little 5G in his bloodstream? One of the reasons the SNL character was so popular was that Moynihan’s comic intentions were so clear — the audience understood that the character’s perspective was WTF ridiculous. But there’s one Drunk Uncle moment that “has stained it in my mind,” he said recently on the Syd & Olivia Talk Sh*t podcast.
When Donald Trump hosted SNL back in 2015, he was clear with Lorne Michaels and the show’s writers that he didn’t appreciate sketches that made fun of him. Trump could veto a number of mocking bits during the week, but Weekend Update was another matter. “Update we don’t write till the end of the week,” Moynihan said, “and he didn’t see it until Saturday.”
Drunk Uncle appeared as the presidential candidate’s #1 fan. “It’s Trump time, baby!” he crowed at Colin Jost. “Finally, somebody is saying the things I have been thinking as well as saying. It’s like I’m running for President!”
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Trump and Drunk Uncle had a million things in common. “We both like white Russians,” slurred Moynihan. “His dad gave him a million-dollar loan. I told my dad I love him, and he told me to leave him alone.”
After Drunk Uncle went off on woke young people who refuse to vote, Jost asked him what specifically he liked about Trump. “It’s more than just like, Colin,” he rambled. “I love him! He’s going to make America grapes again. He’s got everything — money, women, TV shows, Plaza, Miss America, orange hair. He’s perfect! He’s like a big old beautiful Monopoly Man!”
In other words, the bit “was just mocking him completely,” Moynihan said.
But an oblivious Trump loved it. “He walked up to me in the hallway in between Weekend Update and whatever was next,” Moynihan revealed. “And he was like, ‘Sir, thank you. Thank you so much.’ He 100 percent didn’t get it.’
The exchange made Moynihan’s brain explode: “I was like, You idiot.”
Moynihan’s intention was to show how “terrible and racist” Trump was, he said a few years ago on the Daily Beast’s Last Laugh podcast. “I was like, ‘No, you idiot, I thought you were going to be mad and you’re not,’” he said. “‘And now I’m mad that you’re not mad.’”
While Trump wasn’t the worst host Moynihan ever worked with, “the vibe felt like a bratty, rich child,” he said. “He was just delusional.”
In one pre-taped sketch, Trump screwed up the bit and the directors yelled cut, telling him he’d done it wrong. “And he was like, ‘No, I didn’t.’ And they were like, ‘Yes, you did.’ And he was like, ‘No, I didn’t, roll back the tape.’ He tried to prove it. And they did, they showed it to him and he was like, ‘I like it better that way.’”
The Trump show was one of Drunk Uncle’s last appearances. Did Trump ruin the character for Moynihan? “No,” he said. “It didn’t change anything other than the fact that that dumb idiot didn’t get it.”
