"Saturday Night Live" cast member Leslie Jones said Tuesday she hopes the show will rely less on political jokes next season.
The comedian and actress told The Wrap that SNL has a responsibility to cover some political stories because of their importance to the country, but she wants more "comedy-based stuff."
"I hope next year we can do more funnier stuff instead of a lot of political stuff this year, which we had to," Jones said. "But I do hope that next year will be a lot more funny-funny based stuff, more comedy based stuff instead of a lot of political stuff."
She said too many comedians are making the same kind of jokes in light of President Donald Trump’s ascendence.
"One thing that I always made a goal was never to talk about what everybody else is talking about, because most of the time, maybe ten comics are doing literally the same Trump joke," Jones said. "When I started, it wasn’t important about being famous or being heard of. The most important thing was if we were funny. The comics today are — it’s stressful to go to a comedy show, because that’s all they’re going to do is just talk about that. No one just gets up and does a simple joke that makes you laugh."
Jones’ view of comedy is that it should not "always be serious."
"Comedy is a release just like art and music. All of that is the same thing. You need that release. It can’t always be serious. You need The Three Stooges just as much as you need John Oliver," she said.
SNL’s political bent has arguably been its defining feature in recent years, with politics serving as its top subject. Actor Alec Baldwin, who impersonates Trump on the show, said this week he would beat the "maniac" Trump in an election if he ran.
Trump has leveled his own criticisms at the show. After Baldwin said in March it was "agony" doing an impression of Trump, the president said his acting was actually agony for viewers and that Baldwin had a "dying mediocre career."
The show also drew Trump’s attention just after the 2016 presidential election. He tweeted then that it was "a totally one-sided, biased show - nothing funny at all."
That led cast member Pete Davidson to respond, "Never been more proud. Fuck you bitch."
Davidson also got a tattoo of Hillary Clinton’s face in December 2017, calling her "such a badass and one of the strongest people in the universe."