25 of the Best Political Impersonations on Saturday Night Live

15. Jay Pharoah as Ben Carson

The awkward hands salute to Ben Carson in Jay Pharoah’s impersonation was so weird yet so perfect. Jay was a master impersonator on the show and his Carson was the funniest part of most the sketches. When something was falling flat, they’d turn the camera to Jay as Ben Carson and it was sure to get a laugh.

Another man that is hard to make funny, Jay did a great job with him. The problem with impressions is that you can’t just be good at them. You have to make whoever it is that you’re impersonating a funny person. With Carson, he’s not funny at all.

So Jay had to make him into a caricature. And he did it wonderfully. I don’t know why but there is just something so funny about his hands up and crossed like that. He looks like an otter or something and it just works.

His voice is also pretty great too. Because that is just what Jay is good at. (Really, the show without him lacks a bit because Jay is just incredible.) But he did a fantastic job as Ben Carson and this is one impression that we’ll be talking about for quite sometime. The new United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, hopefully it’ll mean that Jay has to come back and continue to play him.