Ana Gasteyer Says Her Best Friend’s Dad, President Jimmy Carter, Was a Huge Fan of His ‘SNL’ Parody

President Jimmy Carter may have given up his peanut farm before assuming office, but he was more than capable of taking a shelling from Saturday Night Live.

Ever since 1975, Lorne Michaels’ late-night comedy monolith has been the most desirable workplace for all of the most prominent presidential impressionists in entertainment. From Chevy Chase's bumbling Gerald Ford to James Austin Johnson and his impeccable impression of Donald Trump, the role of presidential impersonator on Saturday Night Live has long been a position that’s almost as honored and highly scrutinized by the comedy community as the actual president’s performance is evaluated among the American people. And, although the Carter Administration was about as popular in its time as was Fred Armisen’s awful, borderline blackface Obama impression, Dan Aykroyd’s parody of President Carter was a hit with the budding SNL audience, a group that apparently included Carter himself. 

Saturday Night Live legend Ana Gasteyer grew up on Capitol Hill and was close friends with Carter’s only daughter Amy during childhood, and, in a recent appearance on the Las Culturistas podcast, Gasteyer said that she caught Carter laughing his side part off at one of Aykroyd’s presidential sketches during a playdate.

During the podcast episode, current SNL star Bowen Yang asked the veteran Gasteyer the standard Las Culturistas opening question, “What was the culture that made you say culture was for you?” to which Gasteyer brought up the power of laughter and its importance to even the most powerful people.

“It’s gonna sound really humble-brag-y, but it is about SNL, and it’s about the importance of laughter,” Gasteyer answered, noting that she’s understood that importance since she was just a little girl watching SNL in the White House. “I weirdly had this whole childhood life in middle school where I would go and sleep over at the White House and go to Camp David,” Gasteyer said of her relationship with the Carter daughter growing up. “I went to Camp David during the Camp David Accords. I played the violin for (Egyptian President) Anwar Sadat and (Israeli Prime Minister) Menachem Begin. … I watched Star Wars with the Sadats. Insane.”

During one Saturday night sleepover at the White House, Gasteyer and her bestie snuck out for a late-night snack only to find the typically busy president seated in front of the TV watching this hip new variety show called Saturday Night Live. “Sort of in the middle of the White House living area, President Jimmy Carter was sitting in a chair with a burgundy V-neck and a beer, and he was watching Dan Aykroyd play himself on Saturday Night Live, and he was laughing hysterically,” Gasteyer recalled.

“There was a power to that,” Gasteyer said of Carter’s ability to laugh at himself as well as Aykroyd’s impression. Hopefully, Hillary Clinton had the same reaction when Gasteyer played the former First Lady — though I wouldn’t blame Mrs. Clinton if Darrell Hammond is still in the doghouse.