SNL still "has no idea" how to parody Joe Biden

The Washington Post

James Austin Johnson recently became Saturday Night Live's seventh person to portray Biden. But as last weekend's cold open featuring Johnson, Jason Sudeikis and Alex Moffat as three different Bidens showed, spoofing the 46th president has been difficult, says Travis M. Andrews. "The sketch, one of the more clever cold opens in recent memory, underscored SNL’s troubles with parodying Biden: They can’t decide who should portray him — or more importantly, how. Thus far, seven actors have taken shots to varying effect at impersonating the politician over the course of his long career," says Andrews. He adds: "Ironically, Johnson, who was dubbed by Vanity Fair as 'the best Trump impersonator,' became the seventh person to take on Trump’s successor when he joined the cast in 2021. Johnson has quickly proved himself a master imitator, and he plays his Biden closer to the real thing (albeit, a rather simple and oft-confused version of him) rather than going for an absurdist impression a la Carvey’s Bush. He’s only held the gig for a month, so there’s still room to tweak and refine a Biden caricature that sticks. But as Saturday’s cold open reminded us, it’s not an easy job to keep."