Dana Carvey admits his viral ice cream stunt on Saturday Night Live’s cold open was not planned

Just a week after going viral with a hilarious cold open bit on last week’s Saturday Night Live, Dana Carvey is admitting the bit was not planned.

Carvey, 69, returned to SNL as President Joe Biden during the October 5 episode’s cold open, where Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) and Doug Emhoff (Andy Sandberg) were watching the Vice Presidential Debate.

At one point, Biden arrives unannounced and towards the end of the bit, he flails his arms while holding an ice cream cone, smearing some ice cream on her face.

Rudolph played it off perfectly, casually licking the ice cream from her face while trying not to break character, just before the cold open ended.

Now the comedian – who previously impersonated President George Bush during his tenure at SNL – admitted on his Superfly podcast that the bit wasn’t planned.

‘The ice cream cone was not planned,’ Carvey admitted during Friday’s new episode of the podcast he hosts with another SNL alum, David Spade.

‘I asked the prop master to give me an ice cream just to hold for the dress show. And then the air show, she gave me a much bigger [one], and I didn’t ask he,’ he said.

‘I was right kinda gesturing. I thought, “Here’s ice cream, big gob. Here’s Maya’s face,”‘ Carvey admitted.   

‘And I didn’t wanna hurt her, but I just — I thought of it, and did it within two seconds. So that’s to put to rest all the rumors and all the talk,’ he clarified.

Carvey also admitted on the podcast that the response to his impersonation of Joe Biden has changed of late.

He said now there is a more, ‘playful and fun’ response, but when Biden was still seeking re-election before dropping out of the race, he said, ‘it was a hot oven.’

The comedian also admitted he didn’t want to disrespect Biden too much but he wanted his impersonation to be funny.

‘The main thing is it’s making me laugh, and I’m definitely doing stuff that he doesn’t do. He doesn’t smash ice creams into faces. You know?’ he said.

‘He doesn’t say, “I can’t believe it’s not butter.” I’m doing what I did to the first Bush,’ Carvey admitted.

Carvey joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1986, leading a new cast of virtual unknowns that would include future SNL mainstays Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson and Kevin Nealon.

The comedian debuted a character that would help define his career that year – Church Lady – plus his impersonation of then Vice President George H.W. Bush.

He starred on the show through 1993, though he would intermittently return to the show in surprise guest spots throughout the years.