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Dana Carvey's Joe Biden impersonation is so perfect he should be back on 'SNL'

via Joe Biden / Flickr

Let's face it, "Saturday Night Live" nailed it when they chose Alec Baldwin to play Donald Trump on the show, but they missed the mark casting Jim Carrey as Joe Biden. Carrey's Biden was all-over-the-map, sometimes he was a doddering old man, other times he bounced around, making finger guns and acting like a 1930's brawler.

This season, Carrey was replaced by cast member Alex Moffat and the results, so far, haven't been very memorable. In the past, Jason Sudeikis, Woody Harrelson, John Mulaney, and Kevin Nealon have all taken a shot at playing Biden on "SNL."

Former "SNL" cast member Dana Carvey appears to have found the secret sauce to impersonating Biden and it's so good that he should return to the show as the president.

Why not?

Maya Rudolph rejoined the cast to play Kamala Harris. Carvey was probably best known on 'SNL' for his impersonation of George H.W. Bush which was the gold standard during his presidency.

He also famously played the Church Lady and Garth on "Wayne's World."

Carvey debuted his Biden impersonation on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Tuesday. Carvey says his impersonation is the one you see at a town hall. That's the more empathetic version of Biden that we've seen a lot of since the COVID-19 outbreak.

"I do him at the town hall when he's like the gentle father to the country and he looks like the alien who came off the spaceship in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind,'" Carvey explained to host Colbert. He also peppers in Biden's unique ability to lose his train of thought mid-sentence.

"Folks, c'mon. Folks, let's get real here. You know, we've got to do the thing," Carvey said while squinting his eyes. "We did with Barack, we did the deal. And, you know, my dad, you know, lost his job in Scranton. No joke! No joke, I'm not being a wise guy here. I said, 'Pops, why did you lose it?' He said, 'Joe, I did.' My mom said, 'That's the cookie that crumbles."

People contain multitudes, so the best impersonators seem to focus on one aspect of their subject's personality. Carvey's approach is similar to the one taken by master Trump impersonator James Austin Johnson, who focuses on Trump's behavior at rallies. His initial attempts at impersonating Trump targeted his bigotry, but he soon realized that that's more bothersome than funny to most.

Carvey also did his Dr. Anthony Fauci impersonation on the episode. To Carvey, Fauci comes off as "kind of a tough guy." Here, he imagines what a conversation between Fauci and Paul McCartney would sound like.

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Remember when Michael Cohen threatened a reporter? Jim Carrey definitely does.

If you hadn't heard, Jim Carrey likes to paint.

Swapping out the hustle and bustle of Hollywood for a more quiet life of canvases and color swatches, Carrey's been making all kinds of statements via his paint brush. But in recent months, the iconic actor has taken a liking to reimagining the figures we often see splashed across front pages and news chyrons: high-profile members of President Donald Trump's orbit.

Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for AFI.

Now, a new caricature created by Carrey is making waves again.

The subject is Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. And the depiction ... isn't too flattering.

The painting includes words wrapped around the lawyer's head you may have missed at first glance.

Ensnaring Cohen's turquoise face is a quote from Trump's personal lawyer: "I’m warning you, tread very lightly because what I’m going to do to you is gonna be fucking disgusting."

The slightly edited-down quote was part of a larger threat Cohen made to The Daily Beast back in 2015, when Trump was the front-runner to be the GOP nominee for president. During an interview with Cohen, the media outlet brought up an allegation from the president's ex-wife, Ivana Trump, that the then-candidate had once raped her while they were married.

Cohen, rattled by the subject matter, basically blew up. Here is the quote Carrey incorporated into his painting in full context (emphasis added):

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.

While Carrey hasn't specified why he chose that particular quote, Cohen's attack on the free press is especially telling in lieu of recent news.

The home, hotel room, and offices of Trump's self-proclaimed "fix-it guy" were raided by the FBI earlier this month, casting doubt on Cohen's innocence in shielding the president from ongoing investigations into his business dealings and alleged extra-marital affairs.

Just days after the raid, with the eyes of the country on his every move, Cohen dropped libel suits against BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS for their roles in publishing the so-called Steele dossier, which connected Trump to Moscow through various unconfirmed claims.

It appears Cohen's bark is worse than his bite when it comes to his disdain for the free press.

Cohen's not the only one in Trump's world who's taken a hit from Carrey's paintbrush.

In March, the actor shared a painting of an angry, open-mouthed press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Some slammed the caricature as sexist. But others defended Carrey's work, as the style of the painting fell in line with the actor's other works, and unflattering depictions of powerful people have often been used as a tool for political commentary — regardless of the subject's gender.

Between the time Huckabee Sanders' portrait went viral and his latest recreation of Cohen, Carrey painted several other Trump allies as well.

Like Scott Pruitt, the president's embattled EPA chief.

And Trump's new controversial and very hawkish national security adviser, John Bolton.

Even Fox News host — and, incredibly, client of Cohen's — Sean Hannity got a shout-out from Carrey.

Carrey's creations are brash, unapologetic, and as candid as they come. They may not be your cup of artistry tea — regardless of where you lie on the political spectrum — and that's OK.

But the actor's commentary on Cohen's threats to the free press are critical to keep in mind for every Republican, Democrat, and independent alike. After all, it was George W. Bush who once said media is "indispensable to democracy."

"We need the media to hold people like me to account," the former president told NBC News last year — breaking with Trump's move barring several news organizations from White House press briefings.

A free press is American as apple pie. And if it takes a Canadian actor to remind us of that, so be it.

Family

The outrage over Jim Carrey's tweet is sparking a debate about body-shaming.

Jim Carrey, a blockbuster actor known for being both hilariously weird and emotionally effective on-screen, doesn't make many movies anymore. These days, he's more interested in making art.

And he hasn't exactly been quiet about politics, either. On March 17, 2018, Carrey posted a controversial tweet with a grotesque drawing of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, accompanied by the word "monstrous."

"This is the portrait of a so-called Christian whose only purpose in life is to lie for the wicked. Monstrous!" Carrey wrote to his nearly 18 million Twitter followers.

In response, Fox News and several other conservative media outlets are framing Carrey's comments and portrait of Sanders as "disgraceful" and "terrifying." They've also called the tweet "body-shaming" and "bullying."

Body-shaming and bullying are serious issues. But is that really what's going on here?

Chances are, you've seen a number of stories about bullying and body-shaming in recent years — and probably several of them came from us.

The reality is, we're all insecure about our appearances to varying degrees and unrealistic expectations from the media, sexism, and bullying have all contributed to a very real problem that's worth calling out when it happens.

After all, recent studies have shown that fat-shaming isn't just mean, it can involve serious health risks for those who experience it. And one recent study claims that an overwhelming 94% of teenage girls experience fat-shaming at some point in their formative years.

But this simply isn't one of those cases. While Carrey's portrait of Sanders certainly isn't flattering, it's clearly more a political critique or a critique of the job she does than a personal insult about her physical appearance. There's a long history of using unflattering portraits of political figures to make a point that has nothing to do with their real-world body shape, size, or appearance.

Trying to frame political criticism of the White House press secretary as body-shaming only distracts from the real problem, one that these same media outlets rarely seemed concerned about when the alleged target isn't one of their political allies.

Carrey himself has addressed the supposed backlash, tweeting out a satirical painting he did of Trump to make his point. But that hasn't stopped a number of people from calling him out.

Liberals and progressives alike should be called out when they're hypocritical on such a significant issue.

Body-shaming and bullying aren't limited to one side of the political spectrum.

In politics, many on the left have fallen into attacking Donald Trump for his appearance. As we've written before, there is no shortage of things to criticize Trump for — and going after his weight isn't necessary or productive.

More recently, The New Yorkerwas criticized by Fox News and others for its cover depicting a nude Trump. That seems more fair, even though many find it hard to defend the most powerful man in the world who himself has a long history of body-shaming vulnerable women.

If Carrey was doing that here with Sanders, we'd be first in line to criticize him for that.

Political figures are fair game for criticism. Treating any attack as personal is a distraction from the real issues.

It's not always easy to draw the line on acceptable criticism of public figures.

Making direct threats against their safety is a clear red line no one should cross. However, it's clear here that a number of people are using the shield of "body-shaming" and "bullying" as a way to distract from valid criticism of Sanders and her boss.

We're not saying Carrey's commentary was kind, but it's well within the bounds of political criticism. And that's something everyone should defend, even when it's their team that's being targeted.