Jim Carrey will play Joe Biden on Saturday Night Live

Jim Carrey, the elastic actor and star of films like The Mask, Dumb And Dumber and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, will be the latest performer to take on the role of former vice-president Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, on Saturday Night Live.

NBC said last week that Carrey will play Biden on the coming 46th season of SNL, which begins on Oct 3.

Carrey, who has hosted SNL several times over the years and rose to stardom on the Fox sketch show In Living Color, will be the latest performer to impersonate Biden on SNL; the role has previously been played there by Jason Sudeikis, Woody Harrelson and John Mulaney. Alec Baldwin, who has been playing President Donald Trump for SNL since 2016, will be returning to that role.

Presumably there will be plenty of work for both him and Carrey as SNL ramps up to cover the presidential election season: NBC said that the show will broadcast five new episodes to start its season, from Oct 3 through Oct 31. No hosts or musical guests were immediately announced for these shows.

These will be the first live episodes that SNL will broadcast since the coronavirus shutdown in March. The show was forced to conclude last season with several remotely produced episodes.

NBC said in a news release that it expects to allow “a limited in-studio audience at Rockefeller Center” for these new broadcasts and said that SNL will “work closely” with the team of the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, in proceeding with this plan.

SNL said that it has added three new featured performers to its cast: Lauren Holt, a house performer from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles; Punkie Johnson, who has appeared on shows like Space Force and Corporate; and Andrew Dismukes, who has worked as a staff writer on SNL.

NBC also said that SNL would be working with comedy training programmes at the PIT, Second City, the Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade to provide funding for “a scholarship programme for students of diverse backgrounds to advance their careers”.