On a recent episode of his “Fly on the Wall” podcast, Dana Carvey discussed what it was like returning to “Saturday Night Live” to play Joe Biden. Carvey said it was “obvious” that the former president was struggling, and that it was “delicate” to make fun of someone he felt to be “compromised mentally.”
“I knew that he was compromised mentally, I mean, it was obvious. But it was a delicate thing in the comedy world,” Carvey said. “There were a lot of people who did not want to do anything that would kind of ding him in an awkward way.”
Carvey described the feeling of playing Biden as “surreal” and “bizarre,” but still “a lot of fun.” He said that his goal with his impression was to be funny without being mean-spirited, adding that there were some lines he would not cross.
“That’s the key, if I can do Biden, if I can make Biden funny to everybody, then I am where I want to be,” he explained. “And to make it funny, it had to be recognizable. And so there were certain things I did not include in my package.”
Podcast co-host and fellow “SNL” alum David Spade shared his own perspective, explaining that some public figures make otherwise sensitive impersonations “fair game.”
Spade said, “I think it’s easier to make fun of him if he’s the president than if it’s just a 90-whatever-year-old man and just go, ‘Look at this a–hole.’ So once he’s president, he’s more fair game. But no one made fun of him forever.”
