Election years can be stressful. However, we can always count on Saturday Night Live to bring some levity in the midst of all the hard politics.
The hit NBC sketch show has managed to snag some of the best actors and actresses to portray politicians in the history of its 50 years. From Will Ferrell’s impression of George W. Bush to Tina Fey’s take on Sarah Palin — for which she won an Emmy — the show has always managed to book comedians who can turn some shocking political moments into funny bits.
Stars such as Dana Carvey, Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin have also lent their talents to satire our nation’s top leaders.
Below, see the comedians who have expertly portrayed politicians on Saturday Night Live.
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Tina Fey as Sarah Palin
Who better to start with than the woman who won an Emmy award for her portrayal of Sarah Palin?
Tina Fey played the former governor of Alaska when she ran for vice president alongside Senator John McCain during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Speaking on whether or not she thought the famed impression was swaying peoples’ perception of Palin, Fey told David Letterman, “I can’t even sway people to watch 30 Rock.”
“I can’t even sway my kid to use the potty,” she joked. “I can’t sway anybody, but there’s certainly been a strange reaction to it. I’ve [also] seen people who say, ‘Oh, no, you’re helping them.’ ”
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Will Ferrell as George W. Bush
Will Ferrell ran so Tina Fey could fly.
Prior to the Palin impression, perhaps no other impersonation had garnered as much fanfare as Will Ferrell’s take on George W. Bush.
His impression was so good, he even had the 43rd president believing he said a word that had totally been made up by the SNL cast.
While visiting the Today show, which Bush’s daughter Jenna Bush Hager co-hosts with Hoda Kotb, Jenna told Ferrell her dad had been convinced — for years — that he had said the word “strategery” while in debate with Al Gore. It wasn’t until SNL creator Lorne Michaels told the former president that the word had, in fact, been made up by the SNL cast that he realized the truth. Ferrell had also been in on the joke the entire time.
“Lorne Michaels told my dad, ‘You never said that,’ and he said, ‘What? I spent all those years [thinking I’d said it],’ ” Jenna said, “But you knew all along.”
“Oh, I knew all along,” Ferrell revealed before offering a light apology. “I’m sorry, Mr. President,” he said.
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Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump
Alec Baldwin first went viral for his impression of Donald Trump when he stepped into the role back in 2016. The 30 Rock actor went on to impersonate the former president several times following that Oct. 2, 2016, season 42 opener.
“Lorne came to me and said, ‘Do the Trump thing,’ and we thought we were gonna do it for three episodes in the fall [thinking] there was no way he was gonna win,” Baldwin told Jimmy Fallon while on his show in 2018. “And I remember laying in bed saying, ‘Oh, no,'” the actor said of the moment he realized he’d have to do the impression for longer.
Like Fey, Alec Baldwin also won an Emmy for his impersonation.
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Amy Poehler and Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton’s position in the political landscape is so grand, she was played by two people on SNL.
Amy Poehler first played the powerhouse politician in the 2008 to 2009 season, opposite Fey’s Sarah Palin. She even had the opportunity to do her impression in front of the future secretary of state as the two opened a March 1, 2008, episode together.
Poehler passed the baton to Kate McKinnon, who played Clinton during the 2014 to 2015 season. She too, got to do her impression in front of Clinton when they both visited the Ellen Show back in 2016.
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Kate McKinnon as Jeff Sessions
During her 10-year tenure at Saturday Night Live, McKinnon also played former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. And while the impersonation was well-received, the show gave the character an official goodbye during a Nov. 13, 2018, episode.
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Kate McKinnon as Rudy Giuliani
In 2020, McKinnon also stepped into Rudy Giuliani’s shoes, a role which she told fellow SNL alum Seth Meyers oddly came naturally to her.
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Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Warren
Another impression in Kate McKinnon’s impressive Rolodex of characters was none other than Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primaries.
It seems Warren was completely fine being parodied on the show, as she joined McKinnon and participated in the viral “Flip the Switch” challenge back in 2020.
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Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer
Melissa McCarthy had a hilarious turn playing Trump’s former White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
And while the Bridesmaids star’s impression got the viewers going, Spicer had some notes at the time.
While referring to a Feb. 5, 2017, episode in which McCarthy brought out silly props in order to satire her impression of a Spicer-led White House press conference, the subject stated he felt McCarthy “could dial back” a bit and that she “needs to slow down on the gum chewing” as there were “way too many pieces in there,” CBS News reported.
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Larry David as Bernie Sanders
Larry David made his return to SNL just in time to play Bernie Sanders.
The Curb Your Enthusiasm creator left his position as writer on the show back in 1984 and wouldn’t come back again until 2016. He debuted his famed impression of the Vermont senator during that hosting stint.
While fans always noted that their resemblance was uncanny, David found out he was actually related to the former presidential candidate during an episode of the PBS show Finding Your Roots.
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Phil Hartman and Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton
Phil Hartman played 42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton in the early ’90s, between 1992 to 1994. One of his sketches, titled “President Bill Clinton at McDonald’s'” remains one of the most popular from the show. But while fans love the skit, Hartman told David Letterman, “I found out the hard way that he really doesn’t like what I do,” Salon reported.
It seems Darrell Hammond had better luck with Clinton as he recalled the former president tapping him to play a clone in a sketch at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“I’m in the Oval Office in the full Clinton drag with the putty nose, the fake nose, the full thing,” Hammond said while on the Howard Stern Show back in 2001.
“He wanted me to play a clone in a sketch — with him — that he was doing for the Washington Correspondents’ Dinner,” he explained. He went on to reveal that Clinton actually sought his counsel when writing the funny bits of his speech.
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Chloe Fineman as Nancy Pelosi
Chloe Fineman joined Saturday Night Live in 2019 and immediately became a fan-favorite with impressions that ranged from Carole Baskin, Scarlett Johansson and of course, longtime House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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Sarah Sherman and Alex Moffat as Chuck Schumer
Fineman’s Pelosi also appeared alongside Sarah Sherman’s Chuck Schumer.
Before Sherman took over the role, Alex Moffat was tasked with playing the Senate majority leader from New York. At the time, McKinnon was his Nancy Pelosi.
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Bowen Yang as George Santos
Bowen Yang may have done a killer impression of George Santos, but he revealed stepping into the former U.S. congressman’s shoes wasn’t exactly an easy choice as he couldn’t find any commonalities between them.
“I didn’t think [I was the guy to play him] because I was just not sure what his deal was, like any of us weren’t sure,” Yang told Seth Meyers. “I was like, ‘Oh he has glasses and we both have a gross nasally voice, so maybe I’m the guy?’ ”
Needless to say, the Fire Island star ultimately found a way in.
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Fred Armisen and Jay Pharoah as Barack Obama
Many people have attempted an Obama impression, but perhaps none have been quite as impactful as Fred Armisen and Jay Pharoah.
Armisen began impersonating the 44th president of the United States back in season 33, before Jay Pharoah joined the cast and took over. The latter has done impressions of Obama ranging from ordering pizzas to dinner parties to addressing Ukraine.
And it seems like the impressions have gone over well as he told Stephen Colbert Obama even tapped him to do the impersonation at a super secret private event. Asked if Obama like did it, Pharoah joked, “Well, he did. I am still here.”
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Jason Sudeikis and Dana Carvey as Joe Biden
Playing Obama’s former right-hand man was Jason Sudeikis, who debuted his take back in 2007 and played the role till he left in 2013, though he continued to step in occasionally till 2019.
For the season 50 cold open on Sept. 28, former SNL cast member Dana Carvey delivered his own Biden impression that immediately went viral.
On his podcast, Fly on the Wall, Carvey revealed Lorne Michaels was “like a dog with a bone,” and pressed Carvey to take on the role. Though he was hesitant at first, Carvey revealed the impression he landed on was very much a collaboration between himself and the SNL writers.
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Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris
These impressions may still be relatively new, but the sheer commotion they’ve caused deserves to be noted.
Former Saturday Night Live stars Martin Short and Andy Samberg tag-teamed to play second gentleman of the United States and husband to VP Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff.
Samberg appeared as the “second gentlemensch” in the cold open for the season 50 premiere episode. Short later took over the reins in a segment simply titled, “Kamala” in which the couple hosts Ted Cruz (played by Aidy Bryant) and Joe Biden (played by Moffat) for Passover dinner.
Source: People
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