Mike Myers Apologized to Chelsea Clinton Over Ruthless ‘SNL’ Jokes
A Saturday Night Live “Wayne’s World” sketch may have set the boundaries for how comedians handled the president’s children on the show. After apparently making fun of President Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea, Mike Myers ultimately apologized for the joke.
Myers penned an apology letter and SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels also apologized. “We felt, upon reflection, that if it was in any way hurtful, it wasn’t worth it,” Michaels said. “She’s a kid, a kid who didn’t choose to be in public life.”
So what did Myers and sidekick Dana Carvey say about 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton?
‘SNL’ cut the Chelsea Clinton joke from the ‘Wayne’s World’ sketch
The 1992 “Wayne’s World” sketch focused on how Wayne (Myers) and Garth (Carvey) ranked “babe-a-licious” Vice President Al Gore’s daughters. “If they were a president, they’d be Babe-raham Lincoln,” the duo said.
But when it came to Chelsea, they snarked, “Chelsea… well, she’s a babe in development.” The available clip has been cut and Babe-raham Lincoln joke was removed.
President Bill Clinton was not happy with Mike Myers and ‘SNL’
Like just about any father, President Clinton was not thrilled with how SNL treated his child.
“You know, I really find it hilarious when they make fun of me. The Saturday Night Live skit where I was in McDonald’s talking about Somalia—I thought that was hilarious,” he said. “But I think you gotta be pretty insensitive to make fun of an adolescent child. I think there is something pretty off-center with people who do that.”
He added, “We really work hard on making sure that Chelsea doesn’t let other people define her sense of her own self-worth … It’s tough when you are an adolescent because peer opinion and other people’s opinion become more important. But I think she’ll be OK.”
This wasn’t the only time ‘SNL’ made fun of Chelsea Clinton
SNL cast member Julia Sweeney revealed that First Lady Hillary Clinton was also unhappy with her portrayal of Chelsea in another SNL skit. Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to SNL and Sweeney said she understood how she felt.
“People were saying how unattractively I was playing Chelsea, and all I did was not wear makeup and put braces on,” Sweeney said on David Spade’s Fly on the Wall podcast. “If you say that, you’re saying I’m unattractive! … I just didn’t wear makeup and put on braces. That was it, and a wig. A long wig.”
She added, “I understood what Hillary was saying, especially now that I’m a parent,” the comedian said. “It’s like, yeah [expletive] off. I mean, don’t play kids. That was wrong. She was right, that was wrong.”