Will Ferrell returned to Saturday Night Live to revive his George W. Bush impression and remind everyone that, no matter how terrible Donald Trump seems, Dubya was “like, historically not good” at being the president of the United States.
“I don’t know if you’ve seen the news,” he says, “but according to a new poll, my approval rating is at an all-time high. That’s right, Donnie Q. Trump came in, and suddenly I’m looking pretty sweet by comparison … A lot of people are saying, ‘Man, I wish George W. Bush was still our president right about now.’ So I just wanted to address my fellow Americans tonight, and remind you guys that I was really bad. Like, historically not good.”
“So I get why you don’t like this current guy—heck, I voted for Jill Stein all the way—but please do not look back at my presidency and think, ‘This is how we do it.’ Don’t forget: we’re still in two different wars that I started. What has two thumbs and created ISIS? This guy.”
Ferrell’s Bush also acknowledges the stock market lows under his administration, the comparisons between Cheney and Pence, and his own far more amiable relationship with his Cabinet. However, Bush also points out that he and Trump have a lot in common. “We’re both the exact same age,” he says, “even though I was President like 40 years ago. We both won the election despite losing the popular vote. Though, back in my day, we didn’t let Russians rig our elections. We used the Supreme Court, like Americans.”
Now, I totally understand if some of you feel a little “eh” about this sketch. As Ferrell himself suggested in the documentary Live From New York!, his iconic and hugely popular portrayal of Bush as an amiably ignorant good ol’ boy likely shifted the public’s perception of the real-life Bush, and it may have even influenced the 2000 election. So for someone whose comedy likely contributed to the normalization of Bush to come back and be like, “Hey, don’t normalize Bush” … I get how that might rub you the wrong way.
But personally, I still appreciated this pushback against the Trump-induced semi-nostalgia for Dubya. It was a funny, timely reminder that the GOP has been headed down this terrifying road for a long time.
(Featured image: screengrab)
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