Guess what? And by the way — that ice cream moment between Dana Carvey and Maya Rudolph during last week’s Saturday Night Live Cold Open spoofing the vice presidential debate was completely spontaneous.
Speaking on a recent episode of the Superfly podcast, which he co-hosts with David Spade, Carvey revealed the snafu featuring him (as Joe Biden) smashing ice cream in Maya Rudolph’s face (as Kamala Harris) was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
“The ice cream cone was not planned,” Carvey said. “I asked the prop master to give me an ice cream cone just to hold for the dress show. And then the air show, she gave me [a] much bigger [one], and I didn’t ask her.”
Toward the close of the Oct. 5 episode’s opening sketch, Carvey’s Biden crashes the viewing party hosted by Rudolph’s Kamala Harris and Andy Samberg’s Doug Emhoff and ends up delivering a triple vanilla scoop of ice cream right into the actress’ face; she takes it in stride and attempts not to laugh or break character.
“Live, I was right kinda gesturing,” Carvey explained. “I thought, ‘Here’s ice cream, big gob. Here’s Maya’s face.’ And I didn’t wanna hurt her, but I just — I thought of it, and did it within two seconds. So that’s to put to rest all the rumors and all the talk.” He also wasn’t aware he had a “big gob” of his own on his mouth, he told Spade.
Later in the podcast, which featured that week’s host, comedian Nate Bargatze, Carvey said he wanted his Biden impression to be carried out “respectfully.” What began as a viral clip of his online turned into a stint at his alma mater, as he tried to “keep [the impression] funny.” The former SNL star, who portrayed George H. W. Bush previously, called his Biden spoof a mix of cartoon Mr. Magoo and the late actor-comic Tim Conway.
“The main thing is it’s making me laugh, and I’m definitely doing stuff that he doesn’t do,” he said. “He doesn’t smash ice creams into faces. You know? He doesn’t say I can’t believe it’s not butter. I’m doing what I did to the first Bush.”
