Saturday Night Live has been parodying political figures now for nearly 50 years—but what effect does that material have on the real-life politicians? Playing POTUS, a new documentary from director Josh Greenbaum, seeks to answer that question.
As Deadline reports, the film will take a look at various impressions of presidents (and presidential hopefuls) that comedians have done across media. Among those interviewed in the doc are Dana Carvey, Maya Rudolph, Alec Baldwin, Will Ferrell, Jay Pharoah, Darrell Hammond, and Tina Fey.
The film will also explore how critical presidential satire has become to American democracy, as well as the effect these impressions had on the candidates’ public perceptions. One example of that, Greenbaum told Deadline, is Hammond’s “smarmy” portrayal of Al Gore.
“We uncovered it telling our story, but they showed Al Gore that sketch the next day to say, ‘Hey, this is what you look like, so you need to change it,’” Greenbaum said. “…And I think he sort of failed even in the next debate, probably because he was in his head about it.”
Also set to appear in the film is Jimmy Kimmel, who doesn’t do impressions of presidential candidates, but is famously locked in an ongoing battle with former president Donald Trump.
Greenbaum is no stranger to docs about late night. In 2017, he directed Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show. His most recent film is Will & Harper, the Netflix doc following Will Ferrell and former SNL head writer Harper Steele.
Greenbaum also directed Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar and will helm the upcoming Spaceballs sequel.
Playing POTUS is currently in post-production. A distributor and release date have yet to be announced.
