Dana Carvey Breaks Down ‘SNL’ Biden Impression: How Saying ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and Channeling His Dad Led Him to the Perfect Voice

variety.com:

Ethan Shanfeld Dana Carvey made a surprise return to “Saturday Night Live” last weekend to portray President Joe Biden. On the Season 50 premiere episode, he joined Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz, Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff, Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris, Bowen Yang as JD Vance and James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump in a cold open parodying the 2024 election candidates’ rallies. “It’s been top secret.

I’ve kept it under wraps for weeks, but I was asked by Lorne Michaels to come on ‘Saturday Night Live’ … to do Biden,” Carvey said on his and David Spade’s podcast, “Superfly,” recorded before the season premiere of “SNL.” Carvey said he got the call from Michaels after he “casually developed” the impression over time on the podcast. “I didn’t see it out there enough, a Biden impression,” Carvey said. “[There are] a lot of brilliant Trumps — Shane [Gillis], James Austin Johnson.

Biden is trickier … getting that high-energy part of him, and that didn’t come out until maybe six months into his first term when they asked him some question and he got kind of mad.” Carvey added, “It sounds kind of corny, but the true North Star is to try to make it funny and not really get it to be a political message, per se.” On “SNL,” Carvey drew big laughs when his Biden stuttered while talking about his Build Back Better Plan, which devolved into him saying, “Can’t believe it’s not butter!” “I didn’t write it down … that he would say, ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter!’ with declarative intent.