Dana Carvey apologizes for '90s “SNL ”sketch with Sharon Stone: 'It's from another era'

Carvey discussed the sketch on his podcast with Sharon Stone, who hosted the episode and was the butt of the joke.

Dana Carvey is one of Saturday Night Live's great impressionists, with a trove of characters that included iconic impressions of George H.W. Bush, Ross Perot, and Dennis Miller, as well as the beloved Church Lady and Wayne's pal, Garth. However, there's one character of which he isn't as proud in hindsight.

"I want to apologize publicly for the security check sketch where I played an Indian man and we're convincing Sharon [Stone], her character or whatever, to take her clothes off to go through the security thing," Carvey said on the most recent episode of his Fly on the Wall podcast with David Spade and Stone, who was their guest on the episode and was also the host of that installment of SNL.

In the sketch, Stone is passing through an airport security metal detector staffed by Carvey, Kevin Nealon, and Rob Schneider. The trio, with Carvey playing an employee of Indian descent, harasses her and gleefully requests she remove articles of clothing one after another. "It's so 1992," Carvey said. "You know, it's from another era."

Spade chimed in during the apology, calling the sketch "so offensive."

The conversation stemmed from Stone recalling protesters "storming" the stage during her monologue and SNL boss Lorne Michaels jumping into the fray to protect her. Carvey said Stone "was such a good sport" through the rest of the episode, noting that "the comedy we do with Sharon Stone, we'd literally be arrested now."

For her part, Stone didn't mind the jokes set up around men in positions of power requesting she remove clothing. "I know the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony," she said. "And I think that we were all committing misdemeanors [at that time] because we didn't think there was something wrong then. We didn't have this sense. I had much bigger problems than that. That was funny to me. I didn't care. I was fine being the butt of the joke."

She continued, "Now, we're in such a weird and precious time. People have spent too much time alone. People don't know how to be funny and intimate or any of these things with each other. Everyone is so afraid that they're putting up such barriers around everything that people can't be normal with each other anymore. It's lost all sense of reason."

Listen to Stone on Fly on the Wall below.

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