Jim Carrey always explodes into his roles: That's why his SNL Joe Biden impression was bound to be disappointing

The Ringer

Carrey, says Rob Harvilla, is "one of the most overwhelming comedians of his generation, a rumbling boulder of wasabi, a human-shaped wrecking ball who in 2020 is just grabbing the camera by the throat and screaming JIM CARREY!!!! into it no matter who he’s actually supposed to be portraying. You don’t pay Jim Carrey to 'disappear' into a role; you pay him to explode that role entirely like the chestburster from Alien. The role he is currently exploding is that of one of the two remaining candidates for president, and by orders of magnitude the calmer one....JIM CARREY!!!! You’re never unhappy to see Jim Carrey, no matter the context, no matter the societal stakes. But he also makes you glance around for the nearest emergency exit. As the real-life chaos of this election spirals only further downward, and Actual Biden grows ever more stoic and exasperated within it, the sheer wrongness of this approach only intensifies. Even if you love the impressionist—and even if you’re voting for the guy he’s impersonating—you can cower and wince in the destabilizing presence of the impression itself." Harvilla says that maybe we should think of Carrey's Biden like Key & Peele's “Obama’s Anger Translator," with "one of our most famous living comedians playing 'Normal' Biden and Enraged Biden simultaneously. But respecting this approach isn’t nearly the same as enjoying it." ALSO: Why hasn't there been a good SNL movie in 20 years?