In a wisecracking exchange with President Biden this weekend, veteran comedian Steve Martin offered to play the President on Saturday Night Live. Martin’s proposition arrived on the occasion of the Kennedy Center Honors, at which SNL creator Lorne Michaels was one of the honorees alongside Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler, Berry Gordy, and Justino Díaz. Michaels launched Saturday Night Live in 1975, and it has since become a cultural touchstone, providing laugh-out-loud commentary on contemporary culture and politics. Michaels is also a prolific producer and has received 94 Primetime Emmy nominations, holding the record for most nominated individual in the show’s history.
Though Martin was never an official cast member on Saturday Night Live, the comic has hosted the show fifteen times—second only to Alec Baldwin—and has made over two dozen appearances going back to season 2. Despite not being one of the “Not Ready For Primetime Players” during SNL’s early days, Martin has maintained a close relationship with other early cast members and Michaels, who served as Best Man at his 2007 wedding. It’s no surprise, then, that Martin was there to celebrate his friend at the Kennedy Center Honors. Martin himself was an honoree in 2007.
While attending the Kennedy Center ceremony, Martin interrupted President Biden from the crowd to offer his services as SNL’s next Biden imitator. Per CNN, the President had been giving remarks on Michaels, ribbing the show’s creator for having trouble casting a permanent Biden stand-in. “He’s trying out seven guys to play me,” the President joked. When Martin chimed in to ask, “Do you want me to play you?” President Biden laughed and responded, “Steve, I’m afraid you understand me too well.” Check out the full exchange below:
“He’s trying out seven guys to play me. As we say in our family, ‘bless me father for I have sinned.’ If you can’t laugh at yourself we’re in real trouble. And you make me laugh at myself a lot.”
“Do you want me to play you?”
“Steve, I’m afraid you understand me too well.”
President Biden wasn’t wrong to roast Michaels over the show’s Biden impersonator, or lack thereof. SNL has cycled through a number of Biden actors over the years, ranging from Kevin Nealon in 1991 to Woody Harrelson in 2019. In 2020 alone, four different actors attempted to parody the impregnable President. Most memorable is a six-episode stint from guest star Jim Carrey, whose manic, wide-eyed interpretation better resembled his ‘90s movie roles. SNL newcomer, James Austin Johnson, is the latest player to try his hand at the sitting President, having already impressed audiences with his uncanny Trump impression.
Martin wouldn’t be the first non-cast member to imitate a sitting President on SNL. As mentioned, Carrey and Harrelson both had multi-episode arcs as Biden, and John Mulaney, a former SNL writer, portrayed the President when he hosted in February 2020. Alec Baldwin famously played a pouty version of President Trump over the course of his presidency, and was only unseated this year by Johnson’s rambling performance. Moreover, it wouldn’t be Martin’s first appearance as a politico; he played Roger Stone in the cold open of a 2019 episode. As long as Lorne keeps cycling through different Bidens, Martin certainly has the Saturday Night Live bonafides to be the eighth man for the job.
Source: CNN