History Main / BadImpressionists

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles''. In “The Funkmeister,” Rhino’s attempt to mimic {{Music/James Brown}}’s athletic dance moves ends in failure, capped by his extremely inadvisable try to do the splits.

* A brief gag in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' involved this when a random toy shark peeks out of the toy box, Woody's hat happening to have landed on it. Woody is not impressed.

** Not a bit like Cagney.

* There are numerous examples in Michael Winterbottom's ''The Trip'' (and the feature film ''A Cock And Bull Story'') that sees actor Rob Brydon do a deliberately over the top version of character Alan Partridge when making fun of the actor Steve Coogan ("I don't talk like this".)
* Actor Michael Caine has appeared on chat shows doing impressions of people doing impressions of him (The classic being his supposed "catchphrase" of "And not a lot of people know that").

* A unique example of this was Creator/AndyKaufman's Foreign Man persona -- whom his audience didn't initially know ''was'' a persona. Foreign Man did ''dreadful'' impressions of whoever the then-current U.S. president was, [[Series/AllInTheFamily Archie Bunker]] and [[Series/TheEdSullivanShow Ed Sullivan]], but thought they were excellent.[[note]]For example, "This is my impression of President Jimmy Carter. ''[pause, then with no change of voice]'' Hello, I am President Jimmy Carter. Thank you very much."[[/note]] As a result, crowds were nonplussed when Kaufman said he would now impersonate Music/ElvisPresley...and then shocked when it turned out to be a good impersonation, complete with full costume.
* ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' used a variant: a geeky white guy gets up on stage and does an absolutely hideous Bill Cosby impression (he even mispronounces it as "Closby") that has the audience in stitches, much to the consternation of a black guy in the audience who we saw earlier doing a decent impression. The black guy tries to go up and show everyone how it's supposed to be done, but he chokes up behind the microphone and can't pull it off.
* A running joke on both versions of ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' is that Colin Mochrie isn't the best impressionist in the world. Taken to an extreme during one infamous "Questionable Impressions" sketch, where his Craig T. Nelson impression is... his own voice, completely unaltered. (Both are Canadian.)
** Ryan Stiles is hardly any better-- in particular, his John Wayne impression is... "unique".

* It's debatable whether or not Creator/StephenFry's Michael Jackson performance on ''Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie'' can be called an impression at all. He simply appeared as himself, making no attempt whatsoever to look or sound anything like Michael Jackson. He just claimed that's who he was being.

* An interesting case in ''Series/TheOfficeUK'', in which David Brent attempts an impression of the fictional paper executive Eric Hitchmo, only to have no one recognize it. When he asks the crowd if no one's heard of Eric Hitchmo, one worker says, "Yes, but he doesn't sound like that." Subverted, however, in an earlier episode, when David does a spot-on impression of Dirty Harry.

* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia''

* A running gag on ''Series/TheMonkees'' had Mickey Dolenz doing a bad Jimmy Cagney impersonation. It was invariable "You dirty rat, you killed my brother!" which Cagney never said on film.

* ''Series/PieInTheSky'': In "Who Only Stand and Wait", Barry Wilkes does a Winston Churchill impression that's barely distinguishable from his normal way of speaking, and has to explain who it's meant to be.

* Film critic Mark Kermode's impressions of movie-industry people on his radio show are so bad they go past good and back to bad.

** This was subverted in another episode with a stand-up comedian who did impressions of his friends and family, which all sounded exactly the same (a stereotypical New York accent). In the next scene, we see him talking to his friends and family and they actually all really ''do'' sound the same.

** In "The Blunder Years", a hypnotist makes Homer impersonate Creator/EmilyDickinson. Since [[FatIdiot Homer]] apparently has no idea who she is, he confuses her with Angie Dickinson, and his impression consists of him prancing around the room saying "Look at me, I'm Angie Dickinson! Out of my way!"
** Part of [[TheAhnold McBain]]'s unfunny stand-up comedy turn in "A Star is Burns":

* In the ‘’WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy’’ episode “Stimpy’s Fan Club” Ren makes himself a Stimpy suit and tells the mailman not to give him any more fan mail, he does a terrible impression of Stimpy’s voice, other than saying “Duh” he pretty much uses a slightly higher version of his natural voice.
* In the ‘’WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}’’ episode “Angelica Breaks A Leg’’ Angelica does impressions for Didi, while she does attempt to sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger, her impression of ‘’WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}’’ is just her saying “I am what I am, and that‘s all that I am” in her normal voice.

* [[Series/{{Glee}} Sam Evans']] impressions aren't ''terrible'', per se, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRhHYt7qA_Q but they're not great either]]. What makes them more awkward is his [[{{Adorkable}} tendency to try and impress girls with them]].

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* Parodied in ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}'': Gordon Frohman's impression of Gordon Freeman is... well first of all, the latter [[HeroicMime never speaks]], so impersonating him is officially impossible. But his line is "I'm Gordon Freeman! I never say anything! Blah blah blah!"

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* ''Series/NathanForYou'' features a RecurringExtra who's a Creator/BillGates impersonator. He looks nothing like Bill Gates and even struggles coming up with information about Microsoft. The series finale implies that [[ILied he lied]] about being a professional impersonator just to get himself on TV.

->'''Ryan:''' I've gotta say... You've known him for how long?
->'''Geoff:''' Uh, I have known him since 200...4?
->'''[[Creator/GavinFree Gavin]]:''' I mean, online? 2003.
->'''Ryan:''' In a context, in-person, yeah.
->'''Geoff:''' So, eleven years?
->'''Ryan:''' And that's the ''best'' Gavin impression that you can do?
->'''[[Creator/MichaelJones Michael]]:''' It's Geoff, though; it's always insulting.
->'''Geoff:''' I'm not trying to do an ''accurate'' Gavin impression; I'm trying to be insulting.
-->-- ''[[Creator/AchievementHunter The Off Topic Podcast]]''

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* In ''Film/{{Help}}'', Superintendent Gluck does a bad impression of Ringo over the phone: "Hello, this is the famous Ringo, gear, fab. What can I do for you, as it were, gear, fab?"
** Not a bit like Cagney.

* A brief gag in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' involved this when a random toy shark peeks out of the toy box, Woody's hat happening to have landed on it. Woody is not impressed.
-->'''Shark:''' Look, I'm Woody! Howdy howdy howdy.

** Part of [[TheAhnold McBain]]'s unfunny stand-up comedy turn:
-->"Now, my Creator/WoodyAllen impression: (voice stays exactly the same) I'm a neurotic nerd who likes to sleep with little girls."

** The idea for this trope came from a certain episode, where Peter tried to do impressions: "This is my impression of Creator/JohnWayne at the first Thanksgiving. 'Happy Thanksgiving, Pilgrim!'" He then does impressions of John Wayne Bobbit (a man who famously... [[GroinAttack lost his penis to something very sharp]]) and John Wayne ''Gacy'' (the infamous serial killer), using the same John Wayne voice.
** This was subverted in another episode with a stand-up comedian who did impressions of his friends and family, but they all sounded exactly the same (a stereotypical New York accent). In the next scene, we see him talking to his friends and family and they actually all really ''do'' sound the same.
** There was also an earlier one where he did his impressions of Sir UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. They all involved him asking for something British (sans British accent): "Would you like a crumpet? I would because I'm Winston Churchill!"

** Carl the gas station attendant once did his impersonation of Sterling Archer from ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' and Bob Belcher from ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers''. "Hi, I'm that guy, Archer!" The voice at least was dead on because all three characters are voiced by H. Jon Benjamin, in his natural speaking voice.

** Like the Michael Caine example above, KirkDouglas did a bit where he imitated impressionists imitating him.

* Mac in ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' episode "Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer" sucks at impersonating ''Film/{{Borat}}'' and ''Film/AustinPowers''.

** Another time, having accidentally broken up with Marzipan via answering machine, he quickly replaces the tape with a fake he recorded. In the fake messages, he does horrible impressions of several characters, including ''himself''.

* Butchering the impersonatee's accent. Giving a Cockney celebrity a Scottish accent in your impersonation is firmly this trope. Exaggerating for comedic effect (making the Cockney celebrity speak in full rhyming slang while, normally, he or she just pronounces words in a decidedly Cockney way) is just caricature.

* James Quall from ''TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob'' supposedly makes a living off of horrible impressions of celebrities such as Music/MichaelJackson, Creator/JackNicholson, and Creator/BillCosby, and always mentioning spaghetti and meatballs (and usually nothing else).

*** And on a later episode when MichaelDouglas hosted, he told the audience some advice his father had given him. "He said: [bad Kirk Douglas voice] 'Son...'" (Then he laughed and continued in his regular voice instead.)

* Several times on ''Series/TheFastShow''. One of the "I'll get me coat" social faux pas sketches involves a character doing cliché impressions consisting of just saying the person's catchphrase in their normal voice. Simon Day's builder character does completely the ''wrong'' impressions, such as doing a JiveTurkey for an Australian Aborigine or Colonel Sanders for ElvisPresley.

* A unique example of this was Creator/AndyKaufman's Foreign Man persona -- whom his audience didn't initially know ''was'' a persona. Foreign Man did ''dreadful'' impressions of whoever the then-current U.S. president was, [[Series/AllInTheFamily Archie Bunker]] and [[Series/TheEdSullivanShow Ed Sullivan]], but thought they were excellent. As a result, crowds were nonplussed when Kaufman said he would now impersonate Music/ElvisPresley...and then shocked when it turned out to be a good impersonation, complete with full costume.