There’s a story behind Dana Carvey’s return to “Saturday Night Live.”
The 69-year-old “Wayne’s World” star appeared on the Season 50 premiere this past weekend to play President Joe Biden during the cold open.
“It’s been top secret,” Carvey said of his “SNL” cameo on a new episode of his “Fly on the Wall” podcast that he hosts with David Spade.
“I’ve kept it under wraps for weeks,” he added.
Carvey explained that “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels asked him to play Biden, 81, after the comedian started doing impersonations of the president on his podcast. He compared it to his past spoofs of George Bush Sr.
“I tried to do that treatment to Biden and I did it on here with our YouTube clips,” Carvey said. “Extrapolating it, making it silly and weird.”
He went on, “I didn’t see it out there enough, a Biden impression. A lot of brilliant Trumps, Shane [Gillis], James Austin Johnson. Biden is trickier. But, for me, part of that continuum of getting that high energy part of him. And that didn’t come out until maybe six months into his first term where they asked him some question and he got kinda mad.”
Carvey said he tries not to get too political when he’s doing his comedic impressions.
“The true north star is to try to make it funny and not really get it to be a political message, per se,” he explained.
“I didn’t write it down or, you know, sharpen my pencil that he would say, ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter!’ with declarative intent,” Carvey continued, referring to the moment in the skit where his Biden mixes up his words while trying to say “Build back better.”
Carvey said that Spade, 60, suggested other phrases for the sketch.
“It was ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’” Carvey revealed. “Then it was, he would say, ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter,’ and then you gave me one, ‘Bed, bath, and beyond!’ which is a good one, too, because ‘Beyond’ is good with Biden.”
Carvey was a cast member on “SNL” from 1986 to 1993. He’s returned to the show as the host four times.
Biden has been spoofed by Jason Sudeikis, Woody Harrelson, Jim Carrey and Mikey Day on “SNL” over the years.
Carvey took on playing the 46th president for the Season 50 premiere, which also featured Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris, Andy Samberg as Harris’ husband Douglas Emhoff, Jim Gaffigan as Harris’ running mate Tim Walz, Austin Johnson as Donald Trump and Bowen Yang as Trump’s running mate JD Vance.
The episode was hosted by Jean Smart with Jelly Roll as the musical guest.