YIKES, NO YUKS

Comic Hammond’s film tells of his monster ma

For once, Darrell Hammond fans won’t be laughing when they see the funnyman on screen.

The documentary “Cracked Up” premieres Wednesday at the DOC NYC film festival and in it, the 63year-old comedian explores his abusive childhood, which included being stabbed, beaten with a hammer and subject to electrical shock by his mother. The movie isn’t a pleasant experience for Hammond, either.

“When I saw it, I thought it was a brilliant movie,” he told the Daily News. “(When) it opens (Wednesday), I certainly don’t want to see it again. It’s pretty disturbing, although the movie has a nice ending.”

Hammond (photo) first told of his abuse in a 2011 memoir “God, if You’re Not Up There, I’m F---ed,” which he turned into a one-man show. Director Michelle Esrick was familiar with those projects and suggested to the “Saturday Night Live” veteran that he could help a lot of people by documenting his recovery process on film. He was all-in, despite the difficult subject matter.

“It could not be more personal,” he admitted.

According to Hammond, a doctor helped him realize “mental illness is not an airborne virus and is in fact a mental injury.” The Florida native said he came to forgive his mom before her 2006 death, but more so for his own sake than hers.

“It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, I feel just the same about you as I used to’ or ‘Hey, I’ve finally arrived at that feeling of love for you we’ve been working on all along,’ ” he said paradoxically. “No. It’s more like ‘I finally understand why you did what you did and I’m detaching from it, OK? I’ll give you some compassion, but I don’t have any love for you.’ ”

Whether or not he would have been a comedian and top impressionist without his tough childhood, Hammond can’t say.

“You ask yourself, ‘Is every damaged person funny?’ Obviously that’s not true,’” he said. “I think in my case, doing voices for my mom, with my mom, she liked to do voices, so the way I chose to be funny was transformative.”

One of Hammond’s best impressions is Donald Trump — a role currently being played by Alec Baldwin on “Saturday Night Live.” Hammond, who was an “SNL” cast member from 1995 to 2009 is still with the NBC show as an announcer. He’s hard pressed to compare his Trump to Baldwin’s.

“I try not to compare,” he said. “I think he’s a different performer and very clever performer and obviously he’s had great success with it. It’s funny when you do a representation of somebody. People make different choices. I made different choices and they worked for me, and he made different choices and obviously they worked extremely well for him.”

According to Hammond, he and Baldwin have never discussed their “deeply personal” approaches to impersonating the President.

“I’ve always had a good relationship with (Baldwin) and always hope to,” he said.