- 5/30/2025
From controversial SNL sketches to legal battles over likeness rights, these celebrity impressions sparked serious debate and criticism. Join us as we explore the most controversial celebrity impersonations that led to apologies, lawsuits, and heated discussions about the boundaries of comedy and parody.
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00:00Where were we?
00:01Uh, you were saying my impression was way off?
00:03Yeah, I mean, look, I don't get it, it was very inaccurate, you know?
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at impressions of famous people that sparked massive backlash.
00:13Sarah Sherman as Amy Lou Wood, Saturday Night Live.
00:16The White Lotus met the White House in this SNL sketch, primarily taking shots at the Trump administration.
00:22The main talking point, though, was actress Amy Lou Wood, portrayed here by Sarah Sherman.
00:26In addition to mimicking Wood with distinct dentures, attention is called to her teeth when Sherman inquires about fluoride.
00:33I mean, I'm having these insane ideas, like, what if we took all the fluoride out of the drinking water?
00:38But what would that do to people's teeth?
00:40Fluoride? What's that?
00:42The real Wood expressed her disapproval and sadness on social media, calling the sketch mean and unfunny.
00:48Wood clarified that she wasn't hating on Sherman per se, but rather hating on the concept.
00:52Oh, this is so on brand for you.
00:56To be a victim of your own decisions.
00:59Nevertheless, Sherman sent Wood flowers as a way of saying sorry.
01:02Wood also wrote that she received apologies from SNL.
01:05While Wood has seemingly accepted the apologies, comedians debate whether SNL went too far, or if this was fair game.
01:11Oh, look, a monkey!
01:13You're gonna go kill it and eat it.
01:15No, not the monkey!
01:18Natalie Venetia Belkin as Gary Coleman, Avenue Q.
01:21Yo!
01:22Yeah, I'm coming!
01:23I'm coming, I'm coming!
01:26Oh my god, it's Gary Coleman!
01:29Yes, I am!
01:30Although this Tony-winning musical is famous for its foul-mouthed puppets, the principal cast includes a few human characters.
01:36Among the standouts is Gary Coleman, whom Natalie Venetia Belkin played in the original Broadway production.
01:42The former child star is now the superintendent of an Avenue Q building.
01:46While played for laughs, this reflected Coleman's financial struggles and the disappointing realities many face upon reaching adulthood.
01:52I'm Gary Coleman from TV Zip for Strokes.
01:55I made a lot of money back, stolen by my folks.
02:00Now I'm broke, and I'm the butt of everyone's jokes.
02:04The real Coleman was initially interested in playing himself, but there was a failure of communication between the actor and creators.
02:10Coleman wasn't thrilled with his portrayal, saying in 2007,
02:13I wish there was a lawyer on earth that would sue them for me.
02:16After Coleman died three years later, his caricature remained an Avenue Q staple, with some revisions.
02:21Try having people stopping you to ask you, what you talking about, Willis?
02:26It gets old.
02:28Mae Questel as Helen Kane, Betty Boop franchise.
02:31With a career spending decades, Mae Questel broke out on the vaudeville scene with her impressions of celebrities like Helen Kane.
02:38When she won a talent contest, it was a Helen Kane lookalike contest.
02:42She won that contest because she did the best Helen Kane.
02:46She really almost became Helen Kane.
02:48She took on so many of the similar characteristics.
02:50Animator Max Fleischer thus thought Questel would be an ideal candidate to voice Betty Boop,
02:55who was inspired in part by Kane's on-screen persona.
02:58Although not the first actress to voice the flapper girl,
03:00Questel became the definitive Betty Boop, whose popularity eventually overshadowed Kane's.
03:05Work's been kind of slow since cartoons went to color, but I still got it, Eddie.
03:11Boop, boop, be-doo.
03:12This compelled Kane to take legal action against Fleischer and distributor Paramount, claiming infringement.
03:17Although Kane was known for her boop-boop-a-doop routine,
03:20the courts deduced that she didn't pioneer this style.
03:22It could be traced back to child star Baby Esther, who was often compared to performer Florence Mills.
03:28Kane lost her case, while Questel continued to voice Betty.
03:30Did you get everything, huh?
03:32Yeah, I got everything.
03:40Well, so are you, everybody.
03:43Michael Clayton as Robin Williams.
03:44Daniel?
03:46Yeah?
03:48Why in God's name are you dressed like a woman?
03:51Robin Williams rose to superstardom with his unparalleled talents for improv and impressions.
03:56Yet, Williams was anything but flattered upon learning that he was being impersonated by a man named Michael Clayton.
04:02No relation to the George Clooney character, although Williams would lawyer up.
04:05Do I look like I'm negotiating?
04:08Some found Clayton so convincing that he could pass as the genuine artifact.
04:12This sparked confusion among the press and a charity, which thought they were getting the real Williams to perform.
04:17Clayton was accused of duping them.
04:19Williams, who made numerous charitable contributions throughout his life, ultimately took legal action.
04:24Clayton claimed ignorance, blaming agent Michael Poole for the mix-up.
04:27Either way, Williams wasn't negotiating.
04:29Mr. Rook wants to add lawyer to his repertoire of impersonations.
04:33People have no objection.
04:35Merci.
04:35The case was quickly resolved after Clayton and Poole agreed to a stipulated injunction.
04:39Abby Elliott as Brittany Murphy.
04:41Saturday Night Live.
04:42Seth, I'm really honored to be here hosting Saturday Night Live.
04:49No, Brittany, you're not a host.
04:51Oh, yeah.
04:55On December 5th, 2009, Abby Elliott dropped by the Weekend Update desk, putting on her best Brittany Murphy impression.
05:02The sketch commented on how Murphy had left the film, The Caller, reportedly being difficult to work with.
05:07We found that evidently Simon got involved.
05:10I don't know if he slapped somebody or hit somebody, and she got fired, and that's why they came back early.
05:16Elliott's lispy voice and exaggerated airhead persona seemed innocent enough.
05:21Within 15 days, though, the sketch had aged incredibly poorly.
05:24Murphy's unresponsive body was discovered, soon dying from pneumonia and other complications, according to medical experts.
05:31While SNL had no way of foreseeing this tragedy, the timing couldn't have been worse.
05:35Brittany, that's really, that's too bad.
05:37It's not bad, Seth.
05:39I got a plan.
05:41When the movie comes out, I'm gonna go to the theater and say, boo.
05:47You won't find the sketch on SNL's YouTube channel.
05:50Even in syndication, the clip has become difficult to track down with SNL seemingly going out of its way to forget Elliot's impression ever happened.
05:57Martin Short as Frederick Brandt.
05:59Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
06:00Dr. Flamph is here.
06:04Jacqueline.
06:05Oh.
06:06You look fantastic.
06:09Thank you, Sidney.
06:10In the fourth episode of this sitcom, the titular Kimmy Schmidt visits a cartoonish plastic surgeon.
06:15While the character is named Dr. Sidney Grant, pronounced Dr. Franz, he shared an undeniable resemblance to celebrity dermatologist Frederick Brandt.
06:23The two sounded alike as well.
06:25What interesting skin you have.
06:28Look at that.
06:29Absolutely no sun damage, but you've clearly experienced a tremendous amount of stress.
06:35A month after the season dropped on Netflix, Brandt ended his life.
06:39According to Brandt's publicist, the show definitely deeply hurt him.
06:42As devastated as Brandt was, the publicist added that the show was not the reason for his depression, and it was not the reason he would take his own life.
06:49Whatever was at the root of Brandt's mental illness, it's safe to assume why Short didn't return to Kimmy Schmidt.
06:53Ouch.
06:55I assume.
07:00Dana Carvey as Bill Clinton.
07:02The Dana Carvey Show.
07:04Our latest research tells us that I'm guaranteed to win re-election if I just don't do anything.
07:11George H.W. Bush defined Dana Carvey's tenure on SNL, but Bill Clinton marked the premature end of his 1996 sketch comedy series.
07:19Carvey wanted to establish up front that this was going to be a much stranger, edgier comedy show than what audiences were used to.
07:25In retrospect, the newly Disney-owned ABC network wasn't the best fit for the Dana Carvey Show, which opened with the headliner doing a President Clinton impression.
07:33I welcome the challenge from the eventual nominee, and I look forward to debating it at least all.
07:39I'm sure that will be a very interesting thing to watch.
07:43Look, I'm sorry for laughing, but come on, it's a freak show.
07:47Sounds straightforward, until Carvey reveals multiple nipples for breastfeeding and a hen's buttocks.
07:52Although not especially scandalous by today's standards, Democrats and Republicans alike were up in arms at the time.
07:58We got so much hate mail, and one guy wrote, I am a conservative, and I would never vote for Bill Clinton.
08:04But you do not disparage the presidency of the United States, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
08:09From that impression on, the writing was on the wall for the Dana Carvey Show, which wouldn't make it past eight episodes.
08:15Jeffrey Weissman as Crispin Glover, Back to the Future Part 2.
08:18What?
08:19You're George McFly.
08:21Yeah, who are you?
08:22Despite the first film's success, Crispin Glover decided against reprising his role as George McFly.
08:27So, the filmmakers conceived an alternate 1985, where George is dead, and older George still needed to appear in 2015.
08:34For these scenes, Robert Zemeckis turned to actor Jeffrey Weissman, who could do a good impression of Glover.
08:39What happened to Grandpa?
08:40Oh, he threw his back out again.
08:42How's Granddad's little pumpkin?
08:44How did you do that? How did he do that?
08:46Oh, out on the golf course.
08:48It wasn't enough to sound like the original George McFly.
08:50Weissman also needed to look the part, which was accomplished using molds of Glover's face.
08:54Glover felt this crossed a line, pursuing legal action that resulted in the Screen Actors Guild introducing clauses to prevent an actor's likeness from being used without permission.
09:03You're lying, George.
09:06Oh, uh, hey you, get your damn hands off her.
09:11Ironically, Claudia Wells was replaced with Elizabeth Shue as Jennifer, but Zemeckis didn't go to the same extremes.
09:17Jimmy Fallon as Chris Rock, Saturday Night Live.
09:20In 2017, Jimmy Fallon kicked off his Golden Globes monologue with a Chris Rock impression.
09:25I got advice from everybody.
09:28Chris Rock said, uh, a lot of great shows this year.
09:32People vs. OJ gonna win.
09:35People gonna get up there and say, I couldn't have done it without Ryan Murphy.
09:39Fallon had previously showcased the impression on SNL, where he not only put on Chris Rock's voice, but his face as well.
09:45While Fallon's impression was jarring in 2000, it seemed to come and go without any real consequence.
09:50In an age where people loved to joke about jokes that didn't age well, though, it seemed inevitable that Fallon's impression of Rock would resurface.
09:56As the 20-year-old sketch made the rounds, Fallon issued an apology, calling his impersonation a terrible decision.
10:02I realized that I can't not say, I'm horrified, and I'm sorry, and I'm embarrassed.
10:08While Rock doesn't condone blackface, he didn't take the sketch personally, saying,
10:12I don't think Jimmy Fallon intended to hurt me, and he didn't.
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10:31Will Rogers as Calvin Coolidge
10:33Rogers would write that a big man should be able to take a joke at his own expense,
10:37and he would test a string of presidents to see how long they could hold a smile.
10:42Nowadays, some comedians make a living impersonating presidents.
10:45Back in 1928, it was harder to draw a line between reality and parody, especially with a medium like radio.
10:51On the air, after Will Rogers announced that he'd be joined by President Calvin Coolidge,
10:56this was actually just Rogers doing an impression, but numerous listeners couldn't tell the difference.
11:00You know, England hailed about every other political job there was to hold,
11:05and there was a time about two or three years after the war.
11:08It was just a man we needed.
11:10He didn't do nothing, but that's what we wanted done.
11:13Rogers was obligated to issue an apology.
11:16Writing to the president and first lady,
11:17I find that due to my lack of good taste or utter stupidity,
11:20that I've wounded the feelings of two people who I most admire.
11:23Although Rogers promised nothing like this would ever happen again,
11:26it wouldn't be the last time he parodied a president,
11:28with generations of comics following his example.
11:31Do you think any of these impressions went too far?
11:33Let us know in the comments.
11:34But it's me, Satan, Steve Irwin.
11:36I am the Crocodile Hunter.
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