Jim Downey (comedian)

Early life and education

Jim Downey was born in Berkeley, California and raised in Joliet, Illinois. After finishing Joliet Catholic High School, he went to Harvard, where he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon and eventually served as its president. During his time there, he produced a parody of Cosmopolitan that featured a fake nude photo of Henry Kissinger on the cover, and he also arranged for John Wayne to visit campus. He earned a degree in Russian in 1974. Following graduation, he declined an offer from Michael O'Donoghue to join the first season of Saturday Night Live, choosing instead to accept a one-year fellowship in eastern Europe. He is not related to Robert Downey Jr., though his uncle James B. Downey has occasionally been mistaken for him.

Writing career

Downey joined the Saturday Night Live writing staff in 1976 as its youngest member, one of the first Harvard Lampoon writers to work in television. He worked on 27 of the show's first 32 seasons. He arrived the same week as Bill Murray and shared an office with him, but initially wrote with Al Franken, Tom Davis, and Dan Aykroyd. His first stint as writer ran from 1976 to 1980, ending with a brief period as a featured cast member.

He left in 1980 during the mass exodus after Lorne Michaels's departure. From 1982 to 1984, Downey served as the second head writer of Late Night with David Letterman, where he is credited with inventing its Top Ten List and contributing to its sensibility. He became head writer for Michaels's The New Show in 1984, which was cancelled after nine episodes. He returned to SNL that year as a writer under producer Dick Ebersol. He remained head writer until the end of season 20 in 1995, the longest tenure for an SNL head writer.

Acting career

Though credited as an actor on SNL for only one season, Downey appeared in over 40 sketches from 1977 to 2005, including parody commercials such as Craig's Travellers Checks, First CityWide Change Bank, and Grayson Moorhead Securities. In 2007, he appeared in the Digital Short 'Andy's Dad' as the father of cast member Andy Samberg. In film, he is best remembered for playing the high school principal who judges the academic decathlon in Billy Madison, delivering a monologue that concludes with 'I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.'

The monologue was based on a response he often gave to Chris Farley in the SNL writers' room. He appeared in Dirty Work (1998) as a homeless person and had a bit part in Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 film There Will Be Blood as Al Rose. In 2025, he had a bit part in Anderson's One Battle After Another as Sandy Irvine, played a supporting role in HBO's The Chair Company, and starred in the documentary Downey Wrote That. In 2026, he appeared in a post-credits scene of the 98th Academy Awards reprising his One Battle After Another character.

Political views

Downey's political leanings have been a source of speculation due to his role writing much of SNL's political humor. He has described himself as starting as 'a standard-issue Harvard graduate commie' and later becoming 'a conservative Democrat. He is a registered Democrat and supported Barack Obama in 2008. His comedic targets have included politicians across the spectrum, and TV critic Tom Shales called him and SNL an 'equal opportunity slasher.

Some have called him more right-wing than his self-description; Shales described him in 2002 as 'a Republican' and 'pretty conservative,' and former SNL head writer Adam McKay called him 'right-wing' and an 'Ann Coulter pal. Al Franken described him as a 'thoughtful conservative' on a 2019 podcast. In early 2008, Downey wrote sketches mocking the Democratic presidential debates as biased toward Obama. McKay suggested the sketches were a ploy to favor Republicans, but Downey said he probably favored Obama over Hillary Clinton but felt she received tougher treatment from the news media.

He denied intending to help Clinton. On Obama, Downey said, 'If I had to describe Obama as a comedy project, I would say, Degree of difficulty, 10 point 10.'