As Jim Carrey makes way for a new SNL Joe Biden, a look back at all the "fighting SNL Bidens"
While Jim Carrey is thrilled Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, the actor is not ready to commit to a full term playing the 46th president. “Though my term was only meant to be 6 weeks, I was thrilled to be elected as your SNL President…comedy’s highest call of duty,” Carrey tweeted Saturday. “I would love to go forward knowing that Biden was the victor because I nailed that shit. But I am just one in a long line of proud, fighting SNL Bidens!” The comedian’s departure comes just weeks after Trump impersonator Alec Baldwin announced that he was leaving the NBC sketch show (and reminded us that he’s kind of an asshat).
Carrey made his debut as the former vice president on the Saturday Night Live season 46 premiere in early October, taking over for Woody Harrelson and John Mulaney, who played Biden during the previous season.
Prior to that, Jason Sudeikis played the politician during the Obama era and early presidential campaign.
And the former senator was first impersonated on the NBC series on November 12, 1991 by Kevin Nealon during the “Clarence Thomas Hearings” sketch.
With former castmember Kristin Wiig hosting tonight’s new episode of SNL, some fans are hoping for a return of Sudeikis (and, along with him, a reprisal of the two costars’ popular Two A-Holes characters). That prospect is indeed exciting, and would continue the welcome trend of calling in pitch hitters to play politicians on the long-running series.
“Saturday Night Live hiring famous freelancers to do the political stuff might not speak well to the self-impressed, celebrity-saturated tastes of Lorne Michaels, but it does speak well of the current cast,” Jesse Hassenger wrote for us ahead of the season 46 premiere. “Intentionally or not, many of them have opted out of the show’s clunkiest style of political comedy, and the new hires, whether they become successful or not, presumably weren’t hired to perpetuate it. So when the show inevitably opens its season with a splashy political sketch with frequent applause breaks to greet a majority-guest cast, don’t weep for the regulars’ lost opportunities to play Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump. Be envious that they, at least, can take a break and focus on weirder, funnier stuff.”