The Board of Impersonators: How 'Saturday Night Live' Became an American Institution

"Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States," announces the

.

sounds

that march that accompanies the leader of the first world economy when he enters a room.

There is a lectern and a flag with its stars and stripes.

But who goes on the air, live this Saturday of 1975, is not President Gerald Ford.

The man on the screen wasn't even trying to look like him.

He's someone who comically stumbles onto the stage, actually getting tangled up in the US flag, finally reaching the lectern.

You are greeted with a label superimposed: “This is not the president.

But he thinks it is. "

The actor Chevy Chase thus premiered his imitation in chief on a fledgling

the

live comedy

program

that, after 45 years on the air, week after week, always on Saturdays, has become an institution American.

Ford had fallen down the stairs of Air Force One when he arrived in Austria and that had inspired that parody that would go down in history.

Twelve elections have passed since then, and much has changed, both in politics and on television.

But the show continues to write, in its own way, the first draft of American history.

Saturday Night Live

—which returns to Movistar CineDoc & Roll this Saturday— has this election season two veterans imitating the candidates: on one side, Alec Baldwin reoffends in the role of Donald Trump and, on the other, Jim Carrey debuts as Democrat Joe Biden.

The quarry of humor that discovered the now highly sought-after Will Ferrell (

with his George W. Bush impersonation at the turn of the century, is now being pushed aside in favor of world-famous stars who seek virality on the Internet.

Relevance has become more difficult to capture in a landscape where top stars like Dwayne Johnson or Taylor Swift create their own support videos with millions of

“

had a monopoly on this type of content, but now it fights on social media without hours and against all kinds of political humor.

The show has less incentive to develop characters and new voices.

There is much more effort to create something immediately recognizable for Internet users who do not watch the program weekly or in its entirety ”, explains to EL PAÍS Matt Sienkiewicz, head of the Chair of Communication at Boston College and co-author of the book

.

Biden, a career Democrat and a symbol of the triumph of

the party

, is a good example of this evolution.

His character has been around since 1991. Then it was program veteran Kevin Nealon who stepped into the shoes of the then-senator who led the committee to interview Anita Hill, the woman who accused Supreme Court justice candidate Clarence Thomas of abuse.

The politician's presence on

has become more constant since 2007, thanks to his candidacy in the Democratic primaries, and to being named vice president of Barack Obama.

Then the impersonation of Jason Sudeikis (

served to place someone easily parodiable next to a president difficult to satirize.

As with Ford, his was not a copy of the original, but it built a character of its own, awkward, and therefore lovable.

That charisma had also triumphed with Bush father and son.

The latter even invited his impersonator, Dana Carvey, to participate in joint events;

their personalities ended up blending into the cultural footprint.

In the 2019 primaries, Biden had the face of Woody Harrelson.

But the headlines only came when, a few weeks ago, it was announced that it would be Jim Carrey who would play him from now on.

When the real Biden announced Kamala Harris as his vice presidential candidate, his most obvious copycat given the physical resemblance, Maya Rudolph, became a

on Twitter.

Rudolph was announced as an official impersonator shortly.

“The media situation motivated this election.

If

confident audiences would watch the episode, they would prefer a rising star and a groundbreaking humorous outlook.

But since most watch videos on the Internet, it is necessary to attract the most impatient.

Carrey is a safe and unoriginal choice.

The same as Biden as a candidate.

It works instantly to attract a group, but in the long run it is a missed opportunity for ideas, ”Sienkiewicz analyzes.

SNL

maintains its media relevance, although the long-awaited influence on the presidential race is somewhat more abstract.

In 2008, political analysts raised it again when Tina Fey, playing the Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, regained the lost audience.

One of the most famous phrases attributed to Palin, when he was supposedly asked about foreign policy and he replied: "from my house I can see Russia", is actually Fey's invention.

The comedian always answered aseptically to those who concluded that the course of the elections had changed: “I don't think my work convinces people, it simply sheds light on the character.

You help them articulate something they already think of the person ”.

Even so, the candidate was carried away by the wave and appeared one Saturday in front of her impersonator (also in 1976 Ford had invited the cast to the oval office).

It's the first Presidential debate of 2020. Pretty fun to watch, as long as you don't live in America.

Posted by Saturday Night Live on Sunday, October 4, 2020

“Possibly the effect of

is limited.

The media today are segmented and it is difficult to capture minds willing to change.

What it does achieve is to build a subconscious speech that marks the image and speech of the candidate.

Baldwin's Trump is part of a puzzle that reflects how the president is perceived, especially among his critics. "

And it's not the first.

That Bush was known for the comic

(as a child would pronounce the word strategy in English), and in 2017, the former royal president acknowledged that he no longer remembered whether it was his invention or the program's invention.

Al Gore's advisers advised him to watch the satirical debates to understand what he was doing wrong.

Now, Maya Rudolph presents her impression of Harris with the will to influence reality: “It's my civil work.

I have to do whatever it takes to make him win ”, he said.

The presidents always responded with humor to the gallery.

At least until Baldwin and Trump.

"He's gotten petty, and he's not funny."

“You should go to court.

Is this legal?

They just defame, ”he tweeted in 2017. Each comment triggered the audience for the sacred cow of comedy, which achieved its best data in 22 years (since the OJ Simpson trial).

The

struggled to overcome the surrealism of reality and were increasingly fierce against his cabinet.

Perhaps they were also looking to make up for the promotion they gave him when, in November 2015, they gave the mogul the coveted position of weekly host: “They've been making amends for years.

There is a certain sense of guilt in normalizing the Trump brand in a relevant space, and they take advantage of it to attract young and liberal viewers, "says Sienkiewicz.

Ford was also annoyed by Chase's clumsy imitation of him: “The news hurt me… but Johnny Carson and Chevy Chase's use of my stumbles was more damaging.

His jokes created the perception that he was clumsy.

And that was not funny, "he recalled in his biography.

Whether he had

influence

or not, the polls did not support him.

But Trump has long since set other targets, and Baldwin, who has followed suit more than 30 times (surpassing Darrell Hammond, legendary like Trump, Bill Clinton and Gore), is tired: “I don't want to do it.

I think satire doesn't do him good or bad anymore and Trump loves the attention.

Sometimes in the dressing room I wait for a meteor to arrive and kill me ”.