Dana Carvey had audiences laughing for years as he parodied President George H.W. Bush on "Saturday Night Live." The comedian now finds it hard for people in his profession to satirize the president for fear of repercussions.
"I'm from the old school--you go where the power is and you try to make fun of it," Carvey told Carl Kozlowski on his Radio Titans podcast "Kozversations." "When it becomes off limits to say or do certain things without being brutalized or censored or whatever, it's unfortunate."
The "SNL" alum blames this change in audience response for the backlash against his former co-star Dennis Miller. The conservative nature of Miller's stand-up act has made him a pariah to most of the clubs in New York and Los Angeles, according to Carvey.
"If you live in New York or L.A. and you're liberal and you're playing to a liberal crowd it's almost like a rally ... it's not edgy," he says. "The true edge is what Dennis Miller did, and he's been brutalized for it."
Comedians rarely made Barack Obama the butt of jokes early in his presidency because "it took a while to find a way to satirize our president," Carvey said. The 59-year-old comedian still thinks many are "afraid to make fun" of the president, especially in the big city clubs of New York and L.A., because they'll be "labeled."
Carvey takes pride in the fact that the older President Bush enjoyed his impression and he tries to take a bipartisan approach to his comedy routine.
"I take pride in having liberals and conservatives in the crowd," he said.
