Dana Carvey Explains Why His ‘SNL’ Lady Gaga Joke “Didn’t Land”

Much like Joker: Folie à Deux, Dana Carvey‘s latest joke fell a little flat.

As the Saturday Night Live alum continues his Season 50 run as President Joe Biden, Carvey reflected on the latest episode and a joke that “didn’t land” about Lady Gaga‘s performance in the received musical DC sequel.

“So I do the little Biden piece as part of the Brett Baier interrogating Maya-Kamala. And he’s kind of confused. He starts talking about the Joker movie, but they don’t know it,” said Carvey on his Fly on the Wall podcast. “I went, who’s the lady gagaga? You know, whatever. I did that. Didn’t land.”

In the cold open, Maya Rudolph and Alec Baldwin spoofed Kamala Harris‘ Fox News interview with Baier, during which he kept taking quotes out of context, including one of Carvey’s Biden speaking passionately about the sequel at a press conference.

“Folks, we have other problems on our hands. I’m being serious, come on,” he tells the camera. “Four years ago, it was amazing. It was the guy you wanted. But now they got this girl, and people are going, ‘What’s she doing here?'”

After Rudolph’s Harris points out that Biden wasn’t talking about her, but the musical Joker sequel, Baier played the rest of the clip. “And why’s she singin’? What’s a Folie à Deux? What’s a ga ga ga ga goo ga? What is it? Come on! No Joker. No joke,” mused Carvey as the POTUS.

Carvey came up with another line after the fact: “I thought later, I should have said, ‘And who’s Whackin Phoenix? Who the hell is he? Whackin Phoenix would have got a big laugh.'”

Following his 1986-’93 run on SNL, which earned him five Emmy nominations, Carvey has returned this season to portray Biden amid the 2024 presidential election, along with fellow alums Rudolph as Harris and Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff. Jim Gaffigan has also joined the guest lineup as Gov. Tim Walz.