Jim Carrey channels Joe Biden’s inner Mr. Rogers on ‘SNL’

You don’t mess with Fred Rogers — that’s a lesson that Mercedes Schlapp, a senior adviser for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, learned the hard way. After Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Joe Biden, held his Town Hall on ABC this past week, Schlapp negatively compared his performance to the beloved PBS personality. The response to that self-own was swift and came from all quarters… including Saturday Night Live. Towards the end of his third cold open outing as Biden, Jim Carrey’s Veep donned Mr. Rogers’s familiar red sweater and gently crooned his signature tune: “Won’t you be my neighbor?” Twitter immediately felt like kids all over again.

Carrey drew on his own artistic background to pay homage to another dearly departed PBS superstar — painter Bob Ross.

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Carrey’s Joe Biden-as-Mr. Rogers and Joe Biden-as-Bob Ross are arriving on the heels of last week’s equally popular Joe Biden-as-Jeff Goldblum. Three weeks in to what might be a four-year gig, viewers mostly love it when the actor is doing two impressions at once. But when Carrey’s just plain old Joe Biden, they seem to have issues. One common thread to the Twitter complaints is that Carrey and the SNL writers’ apparent insistence on portraying the Veep as doddering and easily confused isn’t just playing into Trump’s “Sleepy Joe” caricature — it’s actually offensive.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump squared off against Kate McKinnon’s Savannah Guthrie in a replay of the Republican candidate’s competing (and lower rated) Town Hall on NBC. Billing herself as a “surprise bad-ass,” McKinnon prodded Baldwin’s POTUS into professing his admiration for Jeffrey Epstein, the Ku Klux Klan and crazy uncles. But most viewers looked past Baldwin and focused on Ego Nwodim playing Mayra Joli a.k.a. the “Nodding Woman” in the red mask who captured so much attention during the Trump town hall. At one point, Nwodim even held up a sign reading: “Call me Fox News.”

Back in the real world, Trump and Biden will supposedly meet for their final debate on October 22. That means next week’s SNL could feature Carrey adding another extra imitation into the mix. How about Joe Biden-as-Andy Kaufman? We already know that’s one role Carrey can disappear into.

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. on NBC

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