Will Ferrell was a recurring character machine during his tenure on Saturday Night Live, creating classics like Craig the Spartan Cheerleader, Neil Diamond, Roger of the Lovahs, middle school music teacher Marty Culp, Harry Caray, Alex Trebek and George W. Bush. But there’s at least one repeat comedy character that Ferrell probably wouldn’t do today, he told The New York Times’ The Interview podcast.
Ferrell’s dressing in drag to portray Attorney General Janet Reno, a recurring sketch he performed four times, is “something I wouldn’t choose to do now,” he said.
Ferrell is promoting Will & Harper, an examination of his relationship with his good friend and collaborator Harper Steele. Steele came out as a trans woman to Ferrell two years ago — the documentary is an account of their friendship in light of the revelation.
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For Steele’s part, Ferrell’s Reno character was uncomfortable comedy. “I understand the laugh is a drag laugh,” she explained. “It’s, ‘Hey, look at this guy in a dress, and that’s funny.’ It’s absolutely not funny. It’s absolutely a way that we should be able to live in the world.”
For her part, Reno didn’t seem to have a problem with Ferrell or SNL — at least not publicly. “I think people are having fun,” she told The Washington Post. “I thought it was just kind of a spoof of this 6-foot-1 big old girl. I can’t figure out why anybody’s that interested in me.” Reno even showed up to dance with Ferrell the last time he did the sketch.
Comedy is complicated, Steele acknowledged. “With performers and actors, I do like a sense of play. This is an interesting question to me. Do queer people like The Birdcage, or do they not? Robin Williams, at least as far as we know, was not a gay man, and yet he spent about half of his comedy career doing a swishy gay guy on camera. Do people think that’s funny, or is it just hurtful?”
There’s no easy answer to Steele’s question — even for Steele. “I’ve heard from gay men that it was funny, and I’ve heard from gay men that it was hurtful,” she told The Times. “I am purple-haired woke, but I wonder if sometimes we take away the joy of playing when we take away some of the range that performers, especially comedy performers, can do.”
Getting cheap laughs as Reno isn’t Ferrell’s only SNL regret. “I’d have to go back and review shows, but I’m sure there’d be a fair amount where you’d lament the choice,” he admitted. But is it all his fault? “The cast — you’re kind of given this assignment. So I’m going to blame the writers.”
There’s sarcasm in the response — Steele was one of Ferrell’s main writers.
“Yeah, he’s not culpable at all,” she laughed. But Steele has her own discomfort with things she wrote for laughs. “I wrote Monica Lewinsky stuff I wasn’t proud of. I wrote some good Britney Spears stuff, and some stuff that I’m not as proud of. I wrote some Clinton things I wasn’t proud of.”
What can comedians do when their comedy doesn’t age well?
“I’m just moving on,” said Steele. “I have to.”