Complete with a Texas accent, Will Ferrell revived his impression of former President George W. Bush at Samantha Bee’s “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” on Saturday evening.
“How do you like me now, huh?” Ferrell as Bush said after he snuffed a cigarette butt on the stage. “The prodigal son has returned. I don’t know what that means, but I know it’s positive. It’s very prodigal.”
Reprising the imitation he originated on Saturday Night Live during the Bush Administration, Ferrell had the chance to reflect on the former president’s new perception among Americans — which changed now that he is compared to President Donald Trump.
“History’s proven to be kinder to me than many of you thought,” Ferrell joked.
But despite skewering the Trump Administration and Fox News, Ferrell said Bush could’ve learned a thing or two about how to treat the press from the current president.
“I wish that someone told me that all you had to say was ‘fake news’ over and over again,” he joked, reflecting on how to respond to tough questions from the media.
Ferrell also took on Bush’s life after the presidency, where he has taken up painting and recently a book, “Portraits of Courage,” filled with his paintings of U.S. military veterans.
Ferrell’s Bush is already working on his next project: “Portraits of Not Courage” — and one of his subjects is Trump.
“As you can see I exhausted my palette of yellow and oranges,” Ferrell said, holding a nearly finished painting of the president. “It’s a strange hue — it’s not really orange or yellow. I got a new name for that color, they should just call it ‘Mar-a-Lago.'”
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