Another Jimmy Kimmel Live, Another SNL Presidential Comedy Controversy

Former President George W. Bush appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday to promote his new book featuring his artwork, “Portraits of Courage“. The book contains portraits done by the 43rd President of veterans who have returned home from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, many of whom are disabled. Since this is comedy site, we’ll avoid using this platform to discuss a former Commander-in-Chief trying to capture the likenesses of disabled soldiers many of which wouldn’t be injured in the first place if he hadn’t sent them to a war in Iraq which he made up.

The real life controversy aside, Bush 43 told Jimmy Kimmel about the comedy beef he ended up in with Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. Kimmel had just told the former President about Alec Baldwin’s visit the night before, which has since turned into a Battle of the Trumps on the Twitter. Bush said he was having dinner with Michaels, which seems hard to believe since W claimed on Kimmel that he rarely watches TV, especially when he was in the White House and he has no clue about popular culture, plus he’s never seen Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump impression.

The former President and the SNL executive producer were discussing Will Ferrell’s now famous impression of George W. Bush and they each took credit for a word that really launched Ferrell’s impersonation into popularity, “strategery“. The non-existent word “strategery” was a key punchline in an SNL 2000 Presidential debate sketch between Will Ferrell’s Governor George W. Bush and Darrell Hammond’s Vice-President Al Gore. While Lorne Michaels claimed the word was a creation of his writing staff, the former President claimed it was an actual misspeak he made which became known as a “Bushism” and he was “damn sure” he said it.

And reminiscent of the current Alec Baldwin – Anthony Atamanuik Trump battle, Kimmel asked Bush 43, who did his favorite George W. Bush impression. His answer was not Will Ferrell, but another Bush impersonator, the late Steve Bridges. The actual George W. Bush loved Bridges’ impression so much that he made him part of his act at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner (see clip below). Former President Bush said he always enjoyed the WHCD because in his opinion, “the best humor is when you make fun of yourself”, to which Jimmy Kimmel replied, “well, tell that to the President.”

You can watch that portion of the JKL George W. Bush interview below, along with Will Ferrell’s now famous line, “strategery” from SNL.

via YouTube

Steve Bridges as George W. Bush at the WHCD

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