Dana Carvey Took Over Biden at 'SNL' Because 'Nobody Wants To Do It'

There have been seven Joe Biden impersonators on Saturday Night Live in the last six years. Seven! Yes, one of those included Jason Sudeikis dusting off his old role, but dagnabbit, that’s a lot of folks playing one guy. I’m serious! Remember Jim Carrey filling the role in 2020? I don’t blame you if you don’t, because he barely made it two months before stepping down. Woody Harrelson played the part in 2019, which I can kind of recall, but not really. Hell, John Mulaney played Biden at one point! Though I assume that’s been memory-holed by most, as it happened just a few weeks before the world would shut down.

The Biden turnover is high. I think for many, the presumption was that none of those presented had a great Biden in them. Sudeikis had fun playing the Vice President for years, putting an energetic spin on the long-time politician, but he moved on. Alex Moffat did a commendable job, and it was nice to see another current cast member get the part after several celebrities, but that was short-lived. James Austin Johnson did a good Biden because he’s good at impressions, but it wasn’t exactly fun (and they need him to keep haunting our nightmares with Trump).

Then there’s Dana Carvey. He took over the part in 2024 after Lorne Michaels had heard him do it elsewhere. It’s classic Carvey in that it isn’t necessarily an exact impression of the former President, but he’s able to tap into his spirit and aura. He’s been a lot of fun to watch as he returns to his former home of seven years, especially considering that he hasn’t been the most excited about returning. “If you go back to where you went to high school, or maybe even grade school, and you go there on a Sunday afternoon, there’s a certain kind of melancholy or vibe or something odd about it, and that’s what going back there is,” he recently explained to Deadline.

It’s also worth noting that Carvey didn’t want to step on the toes of any of the cast members. Still, once he started asking around, it changed his mind. “When I was there, I think only Dan Akroyd came in once and did Bob Dole, and that was in the ’80s, I was sensitive to that,” he noted to the outlet. “But I checked and no one was really excited about doing Joe Biden at that point, so I said, ‘If no one wants to do it, I’m happy to come in.”

I think it’s easy for anyone not involved with the show to assume that what Dana was worried about was exactly what happened. And, there still may have been cast members who didn’t take kindly to Carvey joining, but we won’t know for sure until they say so.

Carvey also got the approval of the Big Man himself (no, not Santa Claus). It was Lorne’s reaction to Carvey’s impression that made him think he was in the pocket. “Lorne’s to my right, and the whole cast and writers are like ‘OK, what’s he got?’,” he recalled. “Just that week, I realized another hook, which was [Biden saying] ‘Guess what. By the way. The fact of the matter is.’ I’m not sure if you’d call them non-sequiturs, but he never really answers them and just goes off in a little tangent. I met with the writers the night before and walked them through a lot of my hooks, but I just ripped it there and then I saw out of the corner of my eye, Lorne Michael’s shoulders going up and down, which happens when he laughs really hard.”

We’ll see if Carvey continues to be Biden next year. People may leave, and the show could find a new cast member who nails Biden better than Carvey does. This is all assuming that a certain someone doesn’t try to sic the FCC on them if they say something mean about him, which they most certainly will. But that is also assuming that we’re all still alive by then. There are a lot of variables in the entertainment industry, folks!