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Rick Mercer weighs in on Donald Trump's impact on comedy

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Rick Mercer says he was glad not to be in the business of covering Donald Trump.

“Trump changed everything ‘cause he took all of the oxygen out of every room,” Rick Mercer told Joyce Napier on CTV’s Power Play Thursday.

The beloved comedian spoke to Power Play about his book “Talking to Canadians: A Memoir.” He writes about everything from his Newfoundland roots to his career in the world of political satire.

He says part of his job included humanizing political figures. Mercer says he wasn’t interested in humanizing the former president of the United States.

“I wasn’t going to go down that road,” he told CTV’s Power Play.

Mercer also said the Trump presidency posed a challenge to American comedians who often went on air and reacted to what Trump and his administration said or did.

Mercer discusses the impact of the Trump presidency on comedy in the video at the top of this article.

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