In its final episode before Christmas, “SNL” brought back Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump for a cold open sketch parodying “It’s a Wonderful Life,” dubbed “It’s a Wonderful Trump.”
In this version of the story, Baldwin’s Trump feels despondent about the way his presidency is going and wishes that he had never become president. He’s led on this journey by Clarence, played here by “SNL” regular Kenan Thompson.
“Since it’s Christmas, I just want to say that you taught me everything I know.” -Michael Cohen #SNL pic.twitter.com/JLC2kEqkf1
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) December 16, 2018
We also got a bunch of guest stars, including Robert De Niro back as Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Ben Stiller as Michael Cohen and host Matt Damon reprising his role as Brett Kavanaugh.
The whole thing is a parade of folks revealing that, unlike Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” actually everyone’s lives would be better had he never become president. Kellyanne Conway, for example, says that “after we lost the campaign the devil gave me my soul back.”
In this story Trump still did run for president, but he lost to Hillary Clinton. Or rather, “In this reality all she had to do to win was visit Wisconsin once,” Clarence says.
The cavalcade of people whose lives are improved by Trump’s loss include Eric Trump, who walks in just as he solves a Rubik’s Cube. Since he doesn’t have to run the Trump organization, he’s taken adult education courses and is smart now.
Melania (played by Cecily Strong), meanwhile, speaks perfect English because she and Trump got divorced — she says that being married to Donald was holding her language skills back.
Meanwhile, Michael Cohen still loves Trump, Mike Pence has discovered his true calling as a DJ, Matt Damon’s Brett Kavanaugh is happy because people don’t think he’s weird when he says he likes beer, and E Niro’s Bob Mueller is happy that he has plenty of time to spend with his grandson.
Trump himself has benefited as well — he now has a full head of normal hair thanks to the work of a Syrian immigrant who was never denied entry to the US.
The lesson Trump learns from seeing that everyone’s lives would be better if he wasn’t president is that “the world does need me to be president after all.”
“Not the lesson!” Thompson’s Clarence said.