On October 11, 1975, George Carlin would first walk through the Studio 8H door as the host of the newest show to air on NBC: Saturday Night Live. Marketed as a “comedy sketch” show, SNL would go on to give us timeless skits and catapult cast members like Seth Meyers, Adam Sandler, and John Mulaney into the limelight. Every week, SNL writers masterfully create comedic sketches based around celebrity faux pas, social media trends, and, most notably, politics.
The first President to be impersonated on SNL was Gerald Ford. Actor, Chevy Chase, would take on the role of portraying the thirty-eighth commander in chief. Stumbling his way through national addresses and debates, “President Ford” made multiple SNL appearances that sent audiences in a burst of roaring laughter. Chevy Chase would eventually be invited to the White House Press Corps dinner, and alongside President Ford, would emerge as the stars of the evening. Alternatively, Ford’s Press Secretary Ron Nessen would host SNL and play himself in skits alongside “President Ford,” aka. Chevy Chase.
This relationship between Presidents and their SNL impersonators would flourish, and with the election of George H.W. Bush in 1988, it would take the nation by storm. SNL cast member Dana Carvey is arguably one of the most talented impressionists that have ever been a part of the Saturday Night Live cast. However, his skills shone while flawlessly matching the New England cadence of the forty-first president, George H.W. Bush. Show after show, Carvey would effortlessly impersonate the President in some of the SNL’s most timeless sketches. Whether it was a cold open on taxes, the forty-first and forty-third Presidential father-son duo going hunting, or Bush’s speech at the Berlin wall, Carvey endeared audiences with his exaggerated portrayal of number forty-one. Like Ford, President Bush found Carvey’s weekly impersonations incredibly funny and famously invited him to a White House Christmas event in 1992. That evening, Carvey cracked numerous jokes, slipped into his Bush impression within the first minute, but, most importantly, would show the nation the importance of humor and laughter — even when you’re the Commander-in-Chief. That evening President Bush would state, “the fact that we can laugh at each other is a very fundamental thing.”
SNL writers continued the show’s legacy of political sketches. In recent years, the writers created skits on former Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s press briefings, Sarah Palin’s debate appearances, and the 2020 debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Time and time again, Saturday Night Live has given us the ability to laugh in our currently polarized political climate.
While political satire is not a new phenomenon, it has long been a source of relief and release for people generationally. The idea that we can laugh at ourselves and the things that cause stress is, as President Bush said, “a very fundamental thing.” Comedy can unite people across racial, political, and social lines that are often the cause of intense division.
However, it seems as though we have forgotten that fundamental idea of humor and laughter in our lives. Perhaps, if we were able to get to a point where humor was funny- but still civilized- we would move to a place where we can put our differences aside and remember our humanity. Humor is often described as being an essential life skill, and in the modern era, is more necessary than ever. Have conversations with one another, tell jokes, and remember to laugh at yourself and those things that scare you the most.
On October 11, 1975, George Carlin would walk through the doors of Studio 8H as the first host of what was to become possibly the greatest comedic-sketch show of all time. Bringing laughter to homes all across America, audiences gather before their televisions on Saturday evenings as they are welcomed into the show in the same manner as they have been for nearly forty-six years, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”
