--- title: Saturday Night Live Sasheer Zamata Donald Trump Comedy description: Find out what Saturday Night Life's Sasheer Zamata said about how Donald Trump's election affected her comedy. canonical: https://time.com/4720556/sasheer-zamata-donald-trump-election-comedy/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-31T17:11:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:19.622Z og:title: SNL’s Sasheer Zamata Says Donald Trump’s Election Changed the Reaction to Her Comedy og:description: ‘People have a desire to talk about issues they may have wanted to avoid before’ og:url: https://time.com/4720556/sasheer-zamata-donald-trump-election-comedy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7726cd2c80f290e/6988c0cfab6d77c6cf6ad6f9/sasheer-zamata-donald-trump-election.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2016 MTV Video Music Awards - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: SNL’s Sasheer Zamata Says Donald Trump’s Election Changed the Reaction to Her Comedy twitter:description: ‘People have a desire to talk about issues they may have wanted to avoid before’ twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7726cd2c80f290e/6988c0cfab6d77c6cf6ad6f9/sasheer-zamata-donald-trump-election.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _SNL_’s Sasheer Zamata Says Donald Trump’s Election Changed the Reaction to Her Comedy  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Mar 31, 2017 5:11 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Actress Sasheer Zamata attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage) NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 28: Actress Sasheer Zamata attends the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden on August 28, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage)Dimitrios Kambouris—WireImage  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Mar 31, 2017 5:11 PM UTC _Saturday Night Live_ cast member [Sasheer Zamata](http://motto.time.com/4708938/allure-discrimination-diversity-beauty/) says audiences are responding to discussions about race more than ever now. In a [new interview](http://www.glamour.com/story/saturday-night-live-sasheer-zamata-pizza-mind) with _Glamour,_ the comedian — who debuted a stand-up special, [_Pizza Mind_](http://ew.com/tv/2017/03/29/sasheer-zamata-snl-standup/)_,_ this week _—_ says that she’s always tried to discuss race and identity in her comedy sets, but that the election has increased the appetite for those frank conversations. “I do think that people have a desire to talk about issues they may have wanted to avoid before. I’ve never had so many random conversations with people where they’re so ready to talk about race, gender, sexual identity, or things that are happening in politics,” she said. “I don’t think anything I’ve been doing has changed, but the response has changed.” She also spoke out about the frustrations she faced as a black woman in Hollywood, including being mistaken for other actors of color. “It seems like they maybe don’t respect me or the other black performers they are confusing me for enough to keep us separate. We all have different talents and different reasons for why we’re in the public eye, but some people just kind of lump us in one pile, like, ‘OK, black women,'” she tells _Glamour_. “It’s like… We don’t do the same stuff. We’re not on the same shows. We’re different people.” Read the [full interview](http://www.glamour.com/story/saturday-night-live-sasheer-zamata-pizza-mind) on _Glamour_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4720556/sasheer-zamata-donald-trump-election-comedy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4720556/sasheer-zamata-donald-trump-election-comedy/"},"headline":"SNL’s Sasheer Zamata Says Donald Trump’s Election Changed the Reaction to Her Comedy","datePublished":"2017-03-31T17:11:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:19.622Z","description":"‘People have a desire to talk about issues they may have wanted to avoid before’","url":"https://time.com/4720556/sasheer-zamata-donald-trump-election-comedy/","keywords":["motto","Comedy","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7726cd2c80f290e/6988c0cfab6d77c6cf6ad6f9/sasheer-zamata-donald-trump-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7726cd2c80f290e/6988c0cfab6d77c6cf6ad6f9/sasheer-zamata-donald-trump-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2016 MTV Video Music Awards - Arrivals","caption":"2016 MTV Video Music Awards - Arrivals","creditText":"Dimitrios Kambouris—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4720556/sasheer-zamata-donald-trump-election-comedy/","name":"SNL’s Sasheer Zamata Says Donald Trump’s Election Changed the Reaction to Her Comedy"}}]}] ```