Will Forte Says SNL Should Have Retired George W. Bush Impression After Will Ferrell

Published: June 20, 2025

Will Forte has opened up about taking over the role of portraying then-President George W. Bush on Saturday Night Live, saying that Will Ferrell made the impression "such his own" that it was impossible to match.

Forte, 55, appeared on the June 17 episode of Good Hang with Amy Poehler and discussed his experience on SNL. He joined the show after Ferrell's last season, and during his tenure, Ferrell's impersonation of Bush became a staple of the show. After Ferrell left, the role, Forte took it over, but admitted that it was not a good fit.

"I don't do impersonations," he said. "It was not a match made in heaven. Will Ferrell was George Bush! He was so good at it. Anybody replacing him... it's like trying to replace the Church Lady," he said, referencing Dana Carvey's iconic character. "Trying to have somebody else do that... he made it such his own thing. They should have just retired it."

Forte ultimately performed as Bush 22 times, according to SNL Archives, from 2004 to 2006. Jason Sudeikis took it over in 2006. But Ferrell's version remains definitive, and he reprised his impersonation in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018. He also took it to Broadway in the limited-run play You're Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush, which ran from February to March 2009.

Ferrell also brought the impression back on a 2022 episode of the Today show for Bush's daughter Jenna Bush Hager. They reminisced about how one of the most famous malapropisms - "strategery" instead of "strategy" - was something the SNL writers came up with and not something the real Bush actually said. Jenna said her dad was shocked to learn that and had "spent all of those years" thinking he'd said that.

Jenna shared in a 2024 episode of Today that she and her sister Barbara would often make their dad watch jokes at his expense. "When he was the president, Barbara and I would show him... like the Saturday Night Live where they made fun of him and stuff. He loved it!" she remembered.