Television

Jim Carrey Done Playing Joe Biden At 'Saturday Night Live'

Jim Carrey Done Playing Joe Biden
By Ethan Anderton

When Saturday Night Live returned for their 46th season, they kicked things off with a whopping six consecutive episodes from the beginning October through the first week of November. That's because it was election season, and that's when SNL does their best to lambast the political scene. To usher in this year's satire with a splash, they brought in Jim Carrey to play Joe Biden. But obviously the series can't keep a big name like Jim Carrey around as long as Joe Biden is president, and the actor has confirmed that he will not be reprising the role on the late night sketch series anymore.

Here's the announcement Jim Carrey made on Twitter with a farewell from the Saturday Night Live account:

It sounds like Jim Carrey knew this was only going to be a short-term deal, unlike the stunt casting of Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump, which has lasted throughout this entire shitshow of a presidency. It seems like SNL has pulled back from using Trump and Biden in their satire for the time being since neither Jim Carrey nor Alec Baldwin have appeared on the show in their respective roles since the show returned for their three December episodes (the final being tonight's Christmas episode hosted by Kristen Wiig). Is it because they just wanted a break from the insanity, or are they trying to figure out how to moved forward with two new people as Trump and Biden?

Personally, I think it would be better if SNL went back to using the cast for these kind of roles more often. Sure, the stunt casting brings in higher ratings and curious eyes, but SNL currently has a massive cast where at least a few comedians get left out in the wind each episode. When Lorne Michaels brings in big name actors and actresses to take key roles, that gives the core cast even less screentime. So if Jim Carrey is stepping down from Joe Biden, I hope that means Alec Baldwin is finally done playing Trump, ad maybe two cast members can get the gig. But who should they be?

For Biden, it's tough to say. The only regular Saturday Night Live cast member who played Joe Biden semi-recently is Jason Sudeikis, and like Carrey, he's going to be too busy and too expensive to bring back on a regular basis. Otherwise, Biden has been played by Woody Harrelson and John Mulaney during their hosting stints, and then by Jim Carrey. It's not hard to picture Beck Bennett taking the role, and maybe Alex Moffat has a Biden impression he can lock down. There's also the possibility that featured player Andrew Dismukes was possibly brought on because he could pull it off. Perhaps we'll find out tonight since Carrey made this announcement before the final episode of 2020.

When it comes to Trump, if push comes to shove, SNL still has Darrell Hammond hanging around Studio 8H as the show's announcer, and it would be fun to have him back on the show occasionally with his fantastic Donald Trump impression. Otherwise, I'm not sure anyone else on the cast would be able to pull it off. It would also be somewhat amusing if they just rotated through the cast and had Trump portrayed with a terrible impression all the time.

For now, we're just glad that SNL will hopefully be able to pull off their political satire without being upstaged by the unbelievable clown show that has been in the White House for four years. Stay tuned to see what happens as SNL continues with their 46th season.

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