The 42nd President of the United States,Bill Clinton, has been parodied onSaturday Night Live (SNL) since 1992. Clinton was in office from 1993 to 2001, and has been portrayed on the show over a hundred times, most often byDarrell Hammond.[1]
Saturday Night Live has parodied U.S. presidents and other politicians since the show started in 1975. The numerous sketches on Clinton are often inspired by aspects ofhis presidency, theLewinsky scandal, and his relationship withhis wife, herself a frequent subject inSNL's political sketches.[2][3]
Secret Service Agent: Fine. But please don't tell Mrs. Clinton.
Bill Clinton: Jim, let me tell you something - there's gonna be alot of things we don't tell Mrs. Clinton about. Fast food is the least of our worries.
Phil Hartman was the first cast member to portray Bill Clinton and did so until he left the show in 1994. Among his 18 appearances as Clinton,[5] a December 1992 sketch, in which Clinton enters aMcDonald's and eats customers' food while talking about politics, has been noted as a successful one.[6][7]
Hartman also reprised his Clinton impression inThe Simpsons for the "Treehouse of Horror VII" segment "Citizen Kang", which parodied the1996 United States Presidential election.
Darrell Hammond took over the role during hisSNL tenure from 1995 to 2009. Like Hartman, Hammond has been considered one ofSNL's best political impersonators,[8] and on the show he parodied several other American politicians. SNL's ratings rose at the peak of the Lewinsky-scandal,[9] and whenMonica Lewinsky guested the show in 1999, she appeared with Hammond's Clinton.[10] In the sketch, Clinton dreams of the life after his presidency, and Lewinsky is his wife.[11]
In 1997, he appeared as Clinton at theRadio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner.[12] According to Hammond, he met Clinton at the White House before the event "in full Clinton drag". Telling Clinton that he felt foolish, the president replied "I think you lookterrific."[13] He also did an impression of Clinton as part of a 2001White House Correspondents' Association dinner performance, after Clinton left office.[14]
Hammond has returned as Clinton several times since he left the cast, and has played the part on the show over 90 times.[1][15]
A 1994 sketch had several cast members auditioning to play Clinton, includingChris Farley,David Spade,Chris Elliott,Adam Sandler, andTim Meadows.[16]Michael McKean briefly played Clinton after Hartman, at the end of 1994.[17]Dana Carvey once appeared as a "young Clinton" in a 1996 sketch whereBob Dole (Norm Macdonald) uses a time-machine.[18]Beck Bennett played Clinton once, in 2013.[19]
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