Saturday Night Live tributes George H.W. Bush on Weekend Update
There has been a tradition for many political candidates to make some sort of appearance on the late-night sketch show at some point during their Presidency … or at least their candidacy for President. There have been some rather fun ones over the years, and Bush himself had a memorable cameo in which he talked about the impression that was done of him. This was basically just a way for him to comment on how “different” the impression was of him when, in actuality, it was more accurate than he wanted to let on. (We know that SNL isn’t really trying to do super-accurate impressions most of the time; instead, what they really tend to prioritize more often than not is trying to hit accurately a few different notes of a specific person and then play those up and make them into an enormous character that works well on TV.)
We appreciate that Bush did this on the show so many years ago, and beyond that, SNL did its best to highlight his personality and then also his ability to laugh at himself — something that is really essential for just about every single person who appears on this show. Even if he did not make frequent appearances on the show over the years, he really didn’t have to. Sometimes, just having a small appearance when you are a well-known political figure is enough.
Kudos to NBC for doing this, and also for treating the presence of Bush as something similar to what we’ve seen them do with some cast members over the years. They understand that this is a long-running series and there are some viewers out there who have been around for virtually every single episode of the show for the past 44 years. Many people out there will remember the George H.W. Bush impression, even though we certainly realize that there are many others who will not.
You can see some more thoughts on tonight’s episode, including the brief nod to Bush, in the video below.
Our thoughts go out to Bush and all of his family during what has to be a difficult time, and we of course welcome your thoughts on how the show handled this particular treatment at the bottom of this article.(Photo: NBC.)