Lorne Michaels, the mastermind behind Saturday Night Live, has admitted that he thinks comedy has little power against totalitarianism.
The 81-year-old creator of the long-running sketch series made the comments Tuesday after a Los Angeles screening of his new documentary Lorne, directed by Morgan Neville.
“I think in the face of totalitarian government, I don’t think comedy really does much good; I think the totalitarians win every single time,” Michaels argued.
He clarified, however, that “there is something as a safety valve in a culture which comedy is a really important part, and being able to even think those thoughts.”
SNL is known for commenting on the current political climate.
In the most recent episode’s “Weekend Update” segment, cast members Colin Jost and Michael Che roasted President Donald Trump over his claims that Iran does not “seem to realize they have no cards.”
Delivering the punchline, they said: “They’re literally holding a strait.”
They also poked fun at First Lady Melania Trump’s recent denial that she had any connection to Jeffrey Epstein, joking that the late convicted sex offender had actually introduced the president to his wife “because they actually met when Trump cracked open her shipping container.”
Addressing the segment, Michaels said: “Jost and Che really went after things and but it was what was bubbling up in the air, with the war, with all of that, and people go, ‘No!’ They know what they do.”
Elsewhere during the discussion, Michaels spoke about the recent launch of SNL U.K. Sharing his original vision for the spin-off, he explained that the “design for it was that it would be the cooler of the two shows.”
He added that the British show should be “smarter, funnier and more original” than the long-running U.S. show.
“It had to be its own thing,” Michaels said. “It couldn’t be an imitation of what we do.”
He also shared what he would have done differently for the SNL U.K.’s recent Prince Albert cold open.
“The way I would have done it is an austere room with the right sort of looking people in an MI5 meeting. And then I would have had an entrance for Andrew, and then I would have explained the plan, which would be logical to me,” he detailed.
The U.K. team “found a way that it’s working for them, and the audience is taken to it,” he said. “There is no better way, there’s only what works.”
As SNL’s season 51 finale nears — featuring powerhouse celebrity guests Will Ferrell and Paul McCartney — speculation has mounted that their monumental pairing could signal a swansong for Michaels.
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