Chevy Chase’s “SNL” presidential mockery turns 50, changed comedy forever

November 8, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of Chevy Chase’s portrayal of U.S. President Gerald Ford as a bumbling klutz on “Saturday Night Live.”

These days, we expect “SNL” to make fun of the president. (There is even speculation in each administration as to who will play the president.)

But the first time Chase did it, it was groundbreaking. In fact, in the years before “SNL,” mocking the president on television, still a relatively new mass media medium, often had to overcome network censors and the resistance of presidential pressure.

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In the early 1960s, NBC executives would not allow a comedy sketch about President John F. Kennedy to appear on the “Art Carney Show.” As a network spokesperson explained, “We felt it would be inappropriate to have performers portraying the president and his wife,” adding that “the decision was based on a matter of good taste.”

Networks were similarly reluctant to mock Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson. In 1964, NBC imported the British parody show “That Was the Week That Was,” which was developed specifically to “provoke the vanity of public figures” in England.

Although the show occasionally poked fun at Johnson, NBC censors constantly fought with the show’s producers over the LBJ jokes. NBC also took the step of suspending all political humor from the program around the 1964 presidential election.

Another show that tried to make fun of the president was “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” The program, which first premiered on CBS in 1967, was turned down by Johnson himself. A skit mocking Johnson led to Johnson telling CBS President William Paley to “get those bitches off my back” in a late-night phone call. Paley wanted the demonstration to go easier on the president.

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When Richard Nixon was elected in 1968, the brothers promised to “put down the jokes for a while” about the new president. But that commitment didn’t stop comedian David Frye from impersonating Nixon on the show.

Yet the show was canceled in April 1969 due to a number of controversies, including sex and religion jokes as well as political jokes.

In the final episode, the brothers read a letter from former President Johnson claiming he didn’t mind being made fun of.

“Being the target of clever satirists is part of the price of leadership. You gave us the gift of laughter. Let us never be so gloomy or self-indulgent that we fail to appreciate humor.”

Although the remarks were admirable, it was a bit difficult to take Johnson seriously, given his earlier tackle on Paley.

Jay Pharoah as President Barack Obama and Bobby Moynihan as Kim Jong-un during the “Obama Mandela” cold open (Dana Edelson/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)

Frye continued to imitate Nixon in his comedy albums after the series was cancelled. But even here the networks continued to block. In 1973, three major networks refused to accept advertising in New York for Frye’s Watergate-related album. According to a WABC-TV spokesperson, “This is such a serious matter that we have decided not to accept advertising of any comedy material related to Watergate.”

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With that background, “SNL” must have known it was taking a risk when it had Chase send the president to live TV. Chase’s portrayal went beyond light jokes at the president’s expense. Chase was chattering away in the Oval Office, holding a glass to his ear instead of a phone and pouring water from a jug onto the papers on his desk. But the show not only survived, it thrived.

The first “SNL” presidential skit was a turning point that helped fundamentally change the relationship between the American people and the president. The 1960s and 1970s had diminished the US presidency in the eyes of the American people. Kennedy’s assassination shocked Americans who were unaware that the president was so vulnerable.

The Johnson years burst the bubble of presidential honesty on foreign affairs. Nixon’s Watergate scandal burst a similar bubble on domestic affairs. And then the unelected Ford came to power and almost immediately pardoned Nixon for Watergate. Although the decision was praised in retrospect, it was controversial at the time.

Dana Carvey stars as George Bush on “Saturday Night Live.” (Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)

Chase’s opening of the show as Ford on that day in 1975 brought the cynical presidents out of the narrow broadcast world of Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl comedy routines and into the mass media on a more regular basis. This first “SNL” sketch ushered in an era in which presidents grew both closer and further away from the American people.

Sarcasm may make physically distant politicians less distant than ordinary citizens. As a result, presidents are now nearly ubiquitous in the world of TV and social media, and the constant ridicule bogs them down — even more so. In this world, even a brief disappearance of the president for a day or two can lead to unsubstantiated rumors about the president’s death.

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At the same time, presidents are further away from the American people because the security bubble around them is much tighter. The White House resembles an armed camp. Presidential motorcades are unapproachable, and presidents have difficulty maintaining regular contact with friends. George W. Bush dropped the email. Obama resisted pressure to give up his BlackBerry.

In our current Chevy Chase-influenced world, presidential ridicule is a constant. While Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have learned that presidents and network lawsuits can still target an individual comic or show, these are unfortunate exceptions rather than the rule, and even Kimmel’s exile barely lasted a week.

The president’s continued mockery on Kimmel, as well as on South Park, Jon Stewart, social media and many other venues suggests that the mass-market, largely uncensored, mockery of presidents that Chevy Chase unleashed on “SNL” a half-century ago will not be going back into the bottle, and for that we should be grateful.

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