Dana Carvey Did ‘Delicate’ Impression of Joe Biden Because He Was ‘Compromised Mentally’
At least in the opinion of Happy Gilmore 2 star and David Spade ex Julie Bowen, Dana Carvey was “the most relevant person” on last season’s Saturday Night Live. That’s because he brought President Joe Biden to life in a way that previous impressions avoided, revealing a leader who wasn’t playing with a full deck of cards.
“It was surreal. It was bizarre,” Carvey confessed on the latest episode of the Fly on the Wall podcast. “It was, at times, a lot of fun.”
Now that we’ve learned that Biden was “severely diminished,” Bowen said, did Carvey feel any guilt or have any new insights about his portrayal?
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“Jesus,” muttered Spade. “Good question.”
Carvey took a moment to collect his thoughts before offering a sputtering answer worthy of Biden himself. “I knew that he was compromised mentally,” Carvey offered. “I mean, it was obvious. But it was a delicate thing in the comedy world. There were a lot of people who did not want to do anything that would ding him.”
“But it's comedy!” Bowen insisted, implying that it was Carvey’s responsibility to ding him.
“That’s it, that’s the key,” Carvey replied. “If I make Biden funny to everybody, then I am where I want be. And then to make it funny, it had to be recognizable.”
The delicate part was lampooning a man who might be compromised by age or, worse, deteriorating capacity — especially once he was voted out of office in November. “It’s easier to make fun of him if he’s the president,” observed Spade. “If it’s just a 90-whatever-year-old man, (people) just go, ‘Look at this asshole.’ Once he’s president, then he’s more fair game.”
Bowen and Spade agreed that previous SNL impressions of Biden were largely toothless, partly because Biden’s personality didn’t lend itself to caricature. It was only when Carvey latched on to bewildered, out-of-nowhere statements like, “I’m not kidding around here — I’m serious!” that the imitation nailed the creeping suspicion that something wasn’t right with Biden.
It took Carvey two years to build the impression, he said. Stage one was Sweet Joe, the politician who told folksy stories. Carvey knew that alone didn’t have the pop of a Trump or Obama, “but then I heard him whisper and yell and I thought, ‘Oh, here we go.’”
Things kicked in when Carvey discovered Biden, the Defiant Guy. “Get your facts right, Jack, or I’ll beat the hell out of you! You want to do some push-ups? You’re a dog-faced pony soldier!”
The cherry on the sundae for late-stage Biden was the non-sequitur interjections. “Guess what? And by the way, the fact of the matter is I’m not kidding around here. Come on, folks, this isn’t rocket science!”
Carvey knew he’d nailed it when hardcore liberals agreed with conservatives that the Biden impression was hilarious. “I’d read the comments,” Carvey said. “Like, ‘Hey man, I hate Trump but whatever, this is really fucking funny.”
