Dana Carvey thinks some people took him too seriously when he playfully apologized to Sharon Stone for a 1992 Saturday Night Live sketch in which he played one of several airport security employees who try to get her to undress — supposedly “for security reasons.”
On top of the sketch being a joke about sexual harassment, Carvey played the security employee as Indian-American. Again, it was 32 years ago. As Carvey joked on last week’s episode of his podcast, Fly on the Wall, “We would be literally arrested now,” for attempting to do the sketch today.
Stone smiled throughout the sketch, and told Carvey on the episode last week that she knows the difference between “a felony and a misdemeanor” when it comes to crossing lines. But many news outlets took Carvey’s apology very seriously.
“It really got traction [and was reported] like sort of a tearful, ‘I’m so sorry!'” Carvey said. Co-host David Spade, another SNL alum, added that some news outlets reported the situation as “Dana Carvey goes on hands and knees and begs forgiveness.”
Carvey clarified on this week’s episode of Fly on the Wall that he’s not really sorry — and that plenty of thought went into the sketch at the time. Here it is:
“I don’t think I wrote that sketch,” Carvey said, but added, “the whole audience went crazy, you do the sketch like six times with the read-through and the rehearsals, and she was such a sport with it. So there was no reason to apologize.”
Dana Carvey Says Apologies Aren’t Necessary for His Characters
He also said he has always done characters of different nationalities.
“Look, I did every nationality. I still do it,” he said. “I don’t make apologies.”
He also mentioned that he is good friends with the director of cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, P.K. Shah, who is Hindu and from India, and that when he does benefit performances for the medical center, he is always asked to impersonate Shah.
“I can’t get out of there until I do my PK stuff. And he loves it,” Carvey said.
The benefits are close to his, uh, heart: Carvey survived a heart bypass surgery for a blocked coronary artery in 1998, and the surgeon made a medical error that led Carvey to sue for $7.5 million in damages, which he donated to charity. He later underwent another, successful surgery.
You can listen to every episode of Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly on the Wall here.
Editor’s Note: Corrects to add galleries,
Share:
