Probably the most uncomfortable apology was over the “Janet Reno’s Fantasies” that depicted him dressed in drag as the former attorney general.
Ironically, Will Ferrell, who once wanted to perform in drag for the sake of comedy, has now lost such desire. In an episode of The New York Times presented podcast, “The Interview,” with Harper Steele, a longtime friend of Ferrell and the former head writer of the SNL, the comedian mentioned a certain “Janet Reno’s Fantasies” sketch from season 23 of the show and seemed to have a somewhat of a regret about the making of this particular scene. In particular, the attorney general as a sketch was a drag look, with Ferrell dressing up a woman for the sake of humor. “That is not something that I would wish to do at this time again,” Ferrell replied when The Times pointed out that the character is ‘off-key now.’
This kind of bums me out,” Steele added to the discussion, which made the audience burst into laughter. “When Meryl Bene says ‘it’s a drag laugh,’ she means it’s like people say ‘hey, look at them wearing a dress, ha ha ha,’ and it’s not funny at all, it’s how one should be able to live a life, but when it comes to the artists or actors, I do like the idea of play.”
“That makes it an interesting question to me,” Steele said. “Does ‘The Birdcage’ make for good humor for queer individuals or not? Robin Williams, as far as he was concerned, had never been a homosexual man. Still, nevertheless, he had spiced up roughly half of his comic career with homosexual themes on camera. Are people supposed to laugh at humor like that or consider it vulgar or rather kitschy and provocative? Opinions of mine run both ways.
Steele came out as transgender 30 years into her friendship with Ferrell, which is now the subject of the acclaimed documentary “Will & Harper.” The film follows the two comedians as they journey across America and rekindle their friendship in the wake of Steele’s transition. Netflix acquired the film after it debuted at Sundance earlier in 2018.
