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DARRELL HAMMOND: (As Al Gore) My plan, Jim, is different.
DETROW: …That Darrell Hammond’s brutal impression of Vice President Al Gore on “Saturday Night Live” after the 2000 debates could have swayed the outcome. Sure, many people remember Will Ferrell’s Bush…
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WILL FERRELL: (As George W. Bush) Strategery (ph).
DETROW: …But Hammond’s Gore was a stiff, unlikable bore. And it was so good, it just about overtook the actual debate in many voters’ minds.
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HAMMOND: (As Al Gore) You may think you know the location of the lockbox.
(LAUGHTER)
HAMMOND: (As Al Gore) And maybe you do. Or maybe that’s a decoy or a dummy lockbox.
DETROW: By exaggerating mannerisms and riffing on real quotes to turn them into jokes and bits, impressionists can often get closer to the true essence of a politician than the politician themselves. In recent decades, comedians like Tina Fey have become merged in many voters’ minds with the politicians they roasted, like then-vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in 2008.
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TINA FEY: (As Sarah Palin) And I can see Russia from my house.
DETROW: These days, the most incisive political comedy and the best impressions aren’t happening on TV. They’re happening on TikTok and Instagram. So ahead of this week’s big debate between former President Trump and Vice President Harris, we called up two of the top impressionists out there – Matt Friend, who does Trump, and Allison Reese, who pokes fun at Harris. We started with Friend. I mean, we kind of started with Trump.
All right. So Mr. President, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. And I just…
