• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, October 16, 2015

Upon hearing the news that Donald Trump will host “Saturday Night Live,” I had a sudden memory of my old friend Joe Franklin, who once said to me, “My whole life is a satire.”

Joe was proudly self-aware of his unique position in the popular culture as this TV talk show host who had been around so long that he had become a parody of a talk show host.

It’s doubtful that Donald Trump will ever come out and admit his life is a satire. But he does seem keenly self-aware -- and perhaps more to the point, self-confident -- so much so that he seems quite comfortable being satirized. He’s hosted “SNL” before, in 2004. And more recently, he had no problem parodying himself on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon. This week, NBC announced that Trump will guest-host “SNL” on Nov. 7.

It’s one of the aspects of Trump’s personality that puzzles some and endears him to others. In his TV appearances, particularly with the late-night hosts, he seems willing to take a great deal of teasing -- about his hair, his ego, his bombast. But in other situations, he can seem incredibly thin-skinned -- blasting out Tweets about people he doesn’t like, threatening lawsuits, summarily banning people from his country clubs (as he did earlier this year when he declared that employees of Univision would be unwelcome at one of his Florida gold courses, although there was no evidence that any of them were then seeking to play there).

When it comes to working the media, Trump is nothing if not wily. He is likely well aware that the anger he expresses when he’s making speeches on the hustings comes across to his supporters as defiance, and they love him for it.

And when he agrees to appear in environments where he will certainly be spoofed, he comes across as easy-going and secure – a man who doesn’t particularly care what people think of him (even though he probably does, since everybody does).

He’s a competitive guy, which is another thing his supporters love about him. Agreeing to guest-host “SNL” is a prime example. Hillary Clinton has already appeared on “SNL” this season, on Oct. 4, in a sketch in which she played a bartender who lent a sympathetic ear to herself, as played by Kate McKinnon.

By guest-hosting an entire show, Trump seems intent on doing Hillary one better. You can almost hear his thought process: “Hillary did a bad job on 'Saturday Night Live.' Only did one skit. I’ll do the whole show and I will be amazing, much better than her!”

What’s really incredible is NBC’s embrace of Trump less than five months after the network dropped his “Miss USA” and “Miss Universe” beauty pageants, and, in the process, announced it was severing all ties with him.

Back then, in June, Trump’s views on Mexican immigrants were judged to be incompatible with NBC’s corporate values. “At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values,” read the statement from NBC about Trump. “Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump.”

More recently, NBC announced that Arnold Schwarzenegger will replace Trump on the next season of “The Celebrity Apprentice.”

Well, maybe NBCUniversal doesn’t consider an “SNL” guest-hosting gig as an example of a “business relationship,” although the word “business” is half of the phrase “show business.” With Trump poised to score big ratings for “SNL,” I guess it’s reasonable to assume that his statements about Mexicans that NBC deemed “derogatory” just a short time ago will no longer stand in the way of NBC doing “business” with him.

By coincidence, Joe Franklin’s admission that his life was a “satire” came in a conversation about “Saturday Night Live.” Joe was talking about how Billy Crystal used to impersonate him on the show in the 1980s. Joe was proud to be parodied this way, and his take on it was this: Crystal, Joe said, “knew he was doing a spoof of a spoof because I’m putting everybody on. My whole life is a satire.”

Of course, Joe Franklin wasn’t running for president.