“Wimpy” George H. W. Bush

This chapter focuses on the humorous portrait of President “wimpy” George H. W. Bush. He was depicted as someone with a peculiar style of speaking, particularly his tendency to speak in clipped sentences. This was classically caricatured by Dana Carvey in a number of Saturday Night Live sketch impersonations. While not terribly critical, Carvey’s impersonations proved so popular that Bush (who was quite good natured about the ribbing) was forced to stop using his signature “thousand points of light” phrase. However, the lasting impression of Bush created by humorists was that he was something of a wimp, a man of little real substance.