Much like his predecessor, Joe Biden has been notoriously difficult to impersonate during the first months of his presidency.
While Donald Trump was hard to caricature due to his distinctive speech and cartoonish style, it’s been hard for comedians and impersonators to work out exactly what to focus on with Biden’s folksy persona.
Saturday Night Live (SNL) has already tried out five different Biden impersonators - from Jason Sudeikis to Jim Carrey - and no-one has quite hit the mark.
No-one that is until comedy legend and former SNL cast-member Dana Carvey, who offered up his impressive take on the president for the Late Show’s Stephen Colbert last night.
Carvey explained that he decided to focus his impression on Biden’s “gentle father” persona that he often uses at town hall events and in major addresses, capturing his sometimes incoherent stream of consciousness style of speech.
Read more:
- TikTok user’s bikini pic accidentally features an X-rated optical illusion
- White headmaster forces black student to apologise the ‘African way’
- Uber passenger who coughed on driver faces up to 16 years in jail
- People are hijacking the Joe Biden fall hashtag to make an important point
You can see the results below:
Dana Carvey gets very detailed with his President Biden impression. #LSSC https://t.co/tELJigQJsx https://t.co/f1skS1zdrN— The Late Show (@The Late Show) 1616608200
Carvey added that the secret to his impression was not worrying about looking like he was making fun of the president’s age.
He told Colbert: “There’s a lot there if you just don’t worry about the fact that he’s 78 and he gets a little confused sometimes. It doesn’t mean you’re attacking him personally…
“But you have to acknowledge that, you know, he’s just like ‘we’re gonna try… we’re doing things, you know… and, and, come on... here’s the deal...’”
And the response on social media so far suggests that he could be in the running for a return to SNL if he wants the job…
Carvey is so much better than anyone SNL has had doing Biden https://t.co/Wyw18cfE8n— Christopher Cadelago (@Christopher Cadelago) 1616609134
The first Biden impression that's actually made me laugh. https://t.co/wDwghevJzl— Mike Deehan (@Mike Deehan) 1616624606
Dana Carvey, with the clubhouse lead among Biden impressionists. (Impressive stat: Carvey was tops on G.H.W. Bush,… https://t.co/7t24j0mMSb— Paul Farhi (@Paul Farhi) 1616621274
It is deeply unfair how insanely good Dana Carvey has been for so insanely long https://t.co/NHTtzRU3N6— Seth Meyers (@Seth Meyers) 1616677700
SNL kept Darrell Hammond around for decades because he could impersonate anyone REALLY WELL. They need to do the sa… https://t.co/IB9OAXEnx8— Robert A George (@Robert A George) 1616610451
In fact, it may be the only thing uniting those on the left and right of US politics right now:
Dana Carvey’s Biden is A+. He’s so cool. https://t.co/0f0gmYC85Y— rob delaney (@rob delaney) 1616610121
strong. https://t.co/wZ8AOc1jcE— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1616646568