America's reality TV president Donald Trump has publicly declared his distaste for the the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
But now he has been accused of stealing material from it.
In an otherwise rambling interview with Time magazine this week, Trump took a defensive position against criticism of his presidency.
"I can't be doing so badly, because I'm president and you're not," he said to Time's Washington bureau chief Michael Scherer.
The full transcript of the interview can be read here.
But that punchline rang familiar with fans of Saturday Night Live, as it was the famous sign-off for SNL's Weekend Update.
When that segment was presented by comedian Chevy Chase, he coined the phrase "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not."
The similarity was flagged by US night time talk show host Seth Meyers, who is an alumnus of Saturday Night Live and, during his tenure, also hosted the Weekend Update sketch.
That prompted other media outlets to point out that another of Trump's signature lines - the "fake news" - is also old Saturday Night Live material.
When the same Weekend Update sketch was anchored by Norm MacDonald, it was opened with the line "I'm Norm MacDonald, and now, the fake news."
Saturday Night Live has been a mainstay of American television for an extraordinary four decades and, according to reports, has occasionally mocked Trump for more than half of that.
He even hosted the show in 2004.
"It's great to be here at Saturday Night Live but I'll be completely honest it's even better for Saturday Night Live that I'm here," he said.
"Nobody's bigger than me. Nobody's better than me. I'm a ratings machine."
Trump hosted the show again in 2015, during the Republican primaries.
Since ascending to the presidency, however, Trump's sense of humour appears to have withered on the vine; he is the first sitting president to object to his portrayal on the show.
That may have something to do with the razor-sharpness of actor Alec Baldwin's portrayal of him.
Trump had previously been played on the show by Phil Hartman and Darrell Hammond but it was not until Baldwin took on the role that the mood in Trump Tower shifted.
Baldwin's performance has been almost universally praised, and has lifted Saturday Night Live to its best audience numbers in years.
Say what you like about Trump but he was right on one point: when it comes to mocking him, he's a "ratings machine".
