Dana Carvey Pays Tribute to Barbara Bush and Recalls How His Impersonations Led to Friendship With the Bushes

Dana Carvey paid tribute to George and Barbara Bush following the former First Lady’s death last week, describing how his comedic impersonations led to a friendship of over two decades.

The comedian, who satirized George H.W. Bush on Saturday Night Live when he was in office nearly 30 years ago, recalled in an interview with Conan O’Brien how the then-President reached out to him following his sketches, which sparked a long term friendship.

“They welcome my wife and I to the White House after he had lost the election and we really hung out with them, we really got to know them,” he said. “We had so many warm moments with them.”

Carvey noted that his friendship with Bush is something unlikely to develop in today’s political environment. President Trump has repeatedly derided actor Alec Baldwin’s impersonations of him on SNL as a “hit job,” and called his career “dying and mediocre” on Twitter. “It was a different time. He wasn’t scorched earth angry politics,” Carvey said.

Barbara Bush passed away last week at the age of 92; her funeral was this past Sunday. George H .W. Bush was hospitalized one day later for a blood infection.

“I’ve never seen a marriage that was so effortless,” Carvey said of the Bush’s 73-year union.

Watch the full clip below.