Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010
Gerald Ford and Chevy Chase at the White House Correspondent's Dinner
The new hit television show Saturday Night Live decided to lampoon President Gerald Ford in the mid-1970's, and the presidential relationship with pop culture has never been the same. Ford's tumble while walking down an airplane ramp in Austria in 1975 became grist for Chevy Chase, who depicted the former college football player turned president as a klutz. The two even became friends, and Ford played the good sport while appearing on both Saturday Night Live and at the White House Correspondent's Dinner with Chase. While doing his bit at the 1975 correspondent's dinner, Ford said, "I'm Gerald Ford, and you're not." The joke was a riff on Chase's Weekend Update routine.