Jim Carrey currently portrays U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden on Saturday Night Live, so how accurate is his impression? The Canadian comic was an original cast member on the early '90s sketch comedy series In Living Color, and then famously crossed over into mainstream cinema with classic performances in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Dumb and Dumber, and The Mask. Forty years after being rejected by SNL, Carrey has landed a high-profile guest star gig that could lead to a permanent job for the next four years.
A typical Carrey impersonation involves facial distortions, sharp body movements, and a devilish smile. On In Living Color, the comedian's most famous character - Fire Marshall Bill - involved exaggerated body movements and line deliveries, along with large teeth prosthetics and sleepy eyes. For celebrity impressions like Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood, Carrey similarly utilizes his facial muscles to draw attention to his eye and mouth movements. By the mid '90s, Carrey used numerous variations for characters like Ace Ventura, Stanley Ipkiss (The Mask), and Lloyd Christmas (Dumb and Dumber). On SNL, the Biden impression requires Carrey to scale down the theatrics while once again mutating his face to amplify his subject's mannerisms.
Carrey's Biden impression on SNL is mostly on-point. For one, he looks like Biden with his body shape and posture, along with the hairstyle and thin grey eyebrows. Audiences can easily recognize Carrey as the performer, and know whom he's supposed to be portraying based on the visual alone. As for the performance, Carrey adds a personal touch by perfecting Biden's toothy politician smile, along with his annoyed grin while debating. Carrey mostly captures the tonal rhythm of his subject ("Look, here's the deal"), and often references Biden's history of anger management issues (which is reminiscent of the Key & Peele sketch "Obama's Anger Translator - Meet Luther"). Carrey also locks into Biden's physical posture, and pinpoints his way of staring at the camera while using his hands to communicate a message. Just as Alec Baldwin uses an exaggerated lip posture when impersonating Donald Trump on SNL, Carrey over-emphasizes the Biden smile, which may remind long-time fans of the performer's Fire Marshall Bill characterization. Biden's facial structure is ideal for Carrey's comedic approach.
On the flip side, Carrey's Biden appears slightly too old. Visually, there's a blend of Fire Marshall Mill and the performer's Clint Eastwood impression, which slightly detracts from the intended impersonation. The makeup team also doesn't emphasize Biden's tan, and instead makes Carrey's Biden appear almost sickly and wrinkly. To be fair, the SNL look does work as a way to capitalize upon the fact that the subject is 77 years old. For the actual performance, Carrey drifts in and out with his Biden voice, and there's always the danger of relying too much on the Fire Marshall Bill mannerisms. Audiences may enjoy that touch of nostalgia, but Carrey will need to focus on Biden's current personality traits rather than falling into the postures of past characters.
In the coming weeks, Carrey may want to incorporate movie or TV lines from past characters while retaining Biden's manner of speech. For example, if Carrey's going to stick with a variation of his Fire Marshall Bill look from In Living Color, then it makes sense to incorporate the character's trademark line, "Let me tell you somethin'!" Or, Carrey could incorporate various bits of modern pop culture to appeal to younger demographics, much like SNL already did by referencing Harry Styles in the season 46 premiere cold open. Carrey mostly hits the mark on Saturday Night Live, but the makeup department may want to pinpoint Biden's attempts to appear youthful, rather than making him look like an elderly Clint Eastwood character.