See Aziz Ansari Hammer Trump, ‘Lower-Case KKK’ in ‘SNL’ Monologue
Aziz Ansari opened his Saturday Night Live hosting gig with a nine-minute monologue where the comedian took aim at Donald Trump and the “lower-case KKK” while applauding the efforts of the massive Women’s March that took place earlier in the day.
“Pretty cool to know though [Trump’s] probably at home right now watching a brown guy make fun of him, right,” Ansari said. “Crazy couple of days, man. Yesterday, Trump was inaugurated. Today, an entire gender protested against him.”
Ansari said it was important not to demonize every Trump voter; some made their choice for economic reasons or other reasonable factors.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of people that voted for Trump the same way a lot of people listen to the music of Chris Brown. Where it’s like, ‘Hey man, I’m just here for the tunes. I don’t know about that other stuff. I just like the dancing and the music. I don’t condone the extra curriculars,” Ansari said.
“If you think about it, Donald Trump is basically the Chris Brown of politics, and ‘Make America Great Again’ is his ‘These Hoes Ain’t Loyal.'”
However, Ansari warned about the “lower-case KKK movement, casual white supremacy” that has been empowered by Trump’s presidency.
“The problem is, there’s a new group… I’m talking about this tiny slice of people that have gotten way too fired up about this Trump thing for the wrong reasons. I’m talking about those people where as soon as Trump won, they were like, ‘We don’t have to pretend like we’re not racist anymore! Wooo” Ansari said.
“No! No! If you’re one of these people, please go back to pretending. You gotta go back to pretending. We’re sorry we never thanked you for your service, we never realized how much effort you were putting into the pretending, but you gotta go back to the pretending.”
Ansari added, “I think Trump should make a speech, a real speech, denouncing the lower-case KKK. Don’t tweet about me being lame… Write a speech. A real speech, because these people are out there and it’s pissing a lot of people off. I think it could make a difference. Other presidents have done this and it has helped. Hate crimes went down.”
Ansari paraphrased an inspiring speech by then-President George W. Bush defending Islam and the need for “basic human decency” before marveling how, 16 years later, Bush seems like a great president compared to the current one.
The monologue ended by circling back to the incredible turnout for the Women’s Marches all over the nation.
“If you look at our country’s history, change doesn’t come from presidents. Change comes from large groups of angry people,” Ansari said. “And if day one is any indication, you are part of the largest group of angry people I have ever seen.”