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Laura Benanti as Melania Trump Explaining the Plagiarized Speech Will Sound Very Familiar

Laura Benanti as Melania Trump Explaining the Plagiarized Speech Will Sound Very Familiar

You may laugh until you cry at Broadway diva Benanti's spot-on impression of Melania Trump in which she used everything from Dickens to Dr. Seuss to make her point. 

TracyEGilchrist

Much ado has been made about the plagiarized speech Melania Trump made at the Republican National Convention on Monday. Parts of the speech were clearly lifted from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech, and now the speech writer Meredith McIver has taken the fall for the lifted lines.

Of course, just hours before the speech in question, Melania told Matt Lauer that she wrote the speech with as little help as possible. So, really, who’s to blame?

All blame aside, the great plagiarism-gate of 2016 has offered endless hilarious tweets and memes, but Broadway diva Laura Benanti’s (on Broadway in Gypsy, She Loves Me, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and on TV in The Good Wife, Supergirl, Nurse Jackie, and The Playboy Club) impression of Melania attempting to explain the plagiarized speech on Stephen Colbert’s show is a thing of beauty.

Note to SNL, and all other late night shows, Laura, as Melania could easily become the Tina Fey as Sarah Palin of this election cycle if you make it happen!

In the sketch, Laura’s Melania insists she never plagiarized as she begins her protestation with a Charles Dickens quote. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” she says with a sad-face pout.

From there she quotes Dr. Seuss, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song, Twisted Sister, The Lion King, and more. 

It can truly only be appreciated first hand. 

And because we can't get enough, here's this. 

And this... 

And finally... 

Stonewall Brick AwardsOut / Advocate Magazine - Jonathan Groff and Wayne Brady

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.