Political impersonations and political satire go all the way back to early days of government. In the last few decades of American politics it’s become a more refined and hilarious pastime. Hell, if it weren’t for political impersonations, there would hardly be anything funny on “Saturday Night Live” at all. So we here at Comedy.com have put together a list of the 10 Funniest Political Impersonations. And, while we’re sure there was some rip-roaring political comedy in ancient Babylon, we’ll have to make do with what we can find on YouTube.
As a spoiler, we ought to let you know that there aren’t any Barack Obama impersonations on this list, since as of yet there doesn’t seem to be anybody that really does a good Obama impersonation. Fred Armisen seems to have the gig right now on “SNL,” but it honestly isn’t all that funny. While there are plenty of Obama impressions on the Internet, none of these amateur efforts are quite funny enough to make it into the top of the list. So there.
10. Amy Poehler as Hilary Clinton
Amy Poehler had been sort of hit and miss with her various characters on “SNL,” but when she started impersonating former First Lady, former New York Senator and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (especially during last year’s bare knuckle Democratic Primary) she managed to perfectly mimic the dichotomy that many people saw in Clinton– the beaming, hand-shaking, baby-kissing consummate politician that her supporters loved and the vindictive, ill-tempered and all-controlling harpy that her detractors hated. If only Amy Poehler would give up doing idiotic movies like “Baby Mama” and just stick with playing Hillary Clinton, the world would be a much better place.
Hillary Clinton runner-up impersonation: La Pequeña Hillary Clinton. If you’ve never heard of La Pequeña, you’re forgiven, but this smartly-dressed Colombian midget transvestite was certainly the funniest and most bizarre YouTube Clinton impersonator during the 2008 election, even though the physical resemble was non-existent.
9. Dan Aykroyd as Jimmy Carter
Much like Chevy Chase did earlier on “SNL” with his Gerald Ford impersonation, Dan Aykroyd didn’t go for a 100 percent spot-on Jimmy Carter impersonation, but instead went for a spoof of the President that was uniquely his own, portraying Carter as a mustachioed slick-talking Southern used car salesman-type of guy. He took Carter well beyond just the grinning “good ol’ boy” peanut farmer that the president tried to portray in order to cut deeper into the marrow of the matter to bring out the real man. Eventually, Aykroyd ditched the chintzy Carter mustache, but somehow something was lost in the process.
Jimmy Carter runner-up impersonation: Jimmy Carter? Who the hell does a Jimmy Carter impersonation?
8. Dana Carvey as George H.W. Bush
We can only imagine that for comedians used to easily impersonating Ronald Reagan, moving to trying to nail the humorous qualities of George Bush Sr. was a bit of a pain in the ass– much like how many comedians wondered aloud after the easy pickings of the Bush Jr. years how they would move on with a harder to spoof Obama. Frankly, there just didn’t seem to be a whole lot there to spoof. George Bush was just a quiet, nerdy guy who said “Read my lips, no new taxes” and as a result, there weren’t that many good George H.W. Bush impersonations. Once Dana Carvey took on the role, he found a condescending evasiveness in the President. After that every George Bush impersonation by others became more of a take on Dana Carvey doing Bush rather than Bush himself.
George H.W. Bush runner-up impersonation: Your uncle that’s working past retirement age to make ends meet who stopped keeping up with comedy around 1990 and still thinks answering almost every question with a nasally “That wouldn’t be prudent” is still funny.
7. Phil Hartman as Bill Clinton
Phil Hartman did a pretty good Ronald Reagan impersonation in the late ’80s, but he really hit comedy gold when he starting spoofing the 42nd President. Unlike Darrell Hammond who took over the role on “Saturday Night Live,” Hartman made the chubby Bubba from Arkansas jokes really work as a fully rounded (pun intended) Presidential satire.
Bill Clinton runner-up impersonation: Hartman was brilliant, but in this clip of “SNL” cast members trying out the role of Bill Clinton, Chris Farley was a piss-your-pants hilarious Clinton. If only he had done the role permanently, he would have probably taken the gold star. Phil Hartman or Chris Farley? Hartman or Farley? It’s an impossible choice.
6. Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford
Some people have given Chevy Chase crap that when he was playing Gerald Ford that he made no attempt to look or sound like Ford, but Chevy Chase understood that a really great impersonation is not about rubber noses and bald caps, but spoofing the nature of someone, even if it involves taking one incident and turning it into an entire act. Gerald Ford falling down the steps of Air Force One turned into Chevy Chase falling over everything that crossed his path and a classic comedy impersonation was born.
Gerald Ford runner-up impersonation: “The Commish” star Michael Chiklis. Okay, so Michael Chiklis isn’t trying to do a Gerald Ford impersonation, but he could, and crack some skulls at the same time.
5. Dana Carvey as Ross Perot
“Saturday Night Live” usually sees the same person doing multiple celebrity impersonations, but Dana Carvey is the only person on this list to appear twice as two different politicians. Why? Because in the early ’90s, Dana Carvey was the freaking man when it came to spoofing America’s political leaders. We’d pay good money to see Dana Carvey’s George Bush and Dana Carvey’s Ross Perot in a full length feel-good buddy movie, like “The Parent Trap” with a couple of old rich white guys. It would be high-larious.
Ross Perot runner-up impersonation: It could be you! Step one: Push out your ears and scrunch up your face. Step two: Imagine a voice that’s like George H.W. Bush, the Lucky Charms leprachaun and JR Ewing all stirring in a pot. Step three: Go to PerotCharts.com, print out your favorite bar graphs on the deficit and spending, get your pointer and… go!
4. Tina Fey as Sarah Palin
Most of the time an actor comes to a role, but with Tina Fey, the role came to her. From the first time John McCain rolled out Sarah Palin onto the national stage, everyone knew that the only person who could really do the Sarah Palin impersonation was Tina Fey. Whe came back to “SNL” just for the part probably because they offered her an entire warehouse full of cash, gold and jewels knowing that having anyone else playing Palin would just be very wrong. But it wasn’t enough that Tina Fey and Sarah Palin could be sisters– Fey knocked the impersonation out of the park to the point that many the lines that were invented as a parody of Sarah Palin to this day are often wrongly attributed to the former Alaska governor.
Sarah Palin runner-up impersonation: Sarah Palin. In the recent weeks, since she announced her resignation, the former Alaska governor has proved to be a far deeper comedy gold mine than anyone could have ever imagined. No one else ever again needs to parody Sarah Palin since she seems to do a pretty good job of doing it all by herself.
3. Trey Parker as Al Gore
For the past 10 years, Darrell Hammond has been “SNL’s” political impersonation go-to guy. He’s done Bill Clinton, John McCain and Dick Cheney, most of which have been pretty “meh.” His Al Gore impersonation is the funniest of them all and would have barely squeaked into the top 10 if it weren’t for the fact that Trey Parker’s “South Park” Al Gore, with his often dangerous ManBearPig obsession is far more hilarious and a much sharper satire of the Al Gore free-range environmentally friendly product that the former Vice President has become. We’re super cereal.
Al Gore runner-up impersonation: Definitely Darrell Hammond. Eh, it’s just that ManBearPig was just that much funnier.
2. Johnny Carson as Ronald Reagan
The 1980s were full of people who impersonated Reagan, and rightly so– he was such a character that it was hard not to impersonate the man. From his career as a faux cowboy and chimp caretaker in his Hollywood days to the perfectly combed coiffure and weathered old face of a president, he made for an easy caricature. But no one seemed to quite nail Reagan like the master– Johnny Carson. He didn’t entirely look or sound like Reagan, but his sense of character, voice and comedic timing were such that it was easy to forget that you weren’t really laughing your ass off at the 40th President of the United States.
Ronald Reagan runner-up impersonation: The Ronald Reagan puppet from “Spitting Image.” From the mid ’80s to the early ’90s, Britain’s “Spitting Image” was one of the funniest political and pop culture satire shows. Using grotesque caricature puppets, it was the perfect medium for such things as a wrinkly puckered Reagan dry-humping a beak-nosed Margaret Thatcher.
1. Will Ferrell as George W. Bush
It seemed that by the end of George W. Bush’s eight years in office, everyone and their grandmother could do a halfway decent Bush impersonation– his sly, childlike chuckle, his affected down-home Texas accent and his malapropisms were at one point almost as ubiquitous and annoying as when everyone thought they could impersonate Austin Powers. And while there are plenty of people on YouTube who look more like George W. Bush, sound more like George W. Bush, no one has even come close to capturing the George W. Bush je ne sais quois (oooh big Frenchy words!) like Will Ferrell. We’re guessing that if Ferrell didn’t already have a wildly successful career that he could live his entire life making millions from doing George W. Bush alone. Finally, it was Will Ferrell’s one-man show “You’re Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush” that forever solidified him as the guy to be The Decider.
George W. Bush runner-up impersonation: Timothy Bottoms from “That’s My Bush.” He looked like Bush, he sounds like Bush and he does the absolutely most hilarious Bush-tripping-balls-on-Ecstasy impersonation you’ve ever seen.
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