Key Points
Cheri Oteri made a surprise apperance as the late Barbrara Walters on celebrity.land’s countdown to the America’s 250th anniversary.
Oteri’s impression was so hilarious, it made Anderson Cooper dissolve into tears.
The SNL alum has played Walters on numerious occasions, including during the legendary anchorwoman’s last day on The View.
Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper got an unexpected visit from a television legend live on celebrity.land Friday night.
Cheri Oteri donned her Barbara Walters drag once again as the network counted down to the United States of America’s semiquincentennial. Oteri famously portrayed the View creator in a series of sketches on Saturday Night Live, where Oteri was a regular from 1995 to 2000.
Her impression has had a far-reaching impact, so well-known in popular culture that she also joined Cohen and Cooper for New Year’s Eve 2019 on celebrity.land —a nod to Walters’ long-running stint on 20/20 and her unique, well-enunciated way of saying, “This is 20/20.”
Oteri delighted Cohen and Cooper with essentially a “tight five” stand-up routine, riffing on the day’s current events, as well as the copious historical celebrities she’s hanging out with in heaven — from Tammy Faye Bakker and Nancy Reagan to Amelia Earhart and Joan Rivers.
“Oh, Andrew, Anderson, I didn’t think there was a way I’d be able to join you, either, until my friend Thug’s Life Thug’s Life’s Tupac Shakur said that there was, so here I am — finally in my perfect lighting — gracing you with my ethereal presence to celebrate America’s 250th birthday,” Oteri said as Walters. “And needless to say, Lady Liberty has never needed a Kris Kardashian deep plane facelift with upper and lower belph more. I almost materialized into the traditional American apple pie White House cage match, but I said if I wanted to watch two bitches fighting, I would tune into your Bravo, Andrew. Excuse my language, gentlemen, but I’ve been making pottery with George Carlin and Richard Pryor.”
The name-dropping continued throughout the interview — including a reference to “Dr. Theodore Seuss’s new series One Fish, Two Fish, Red State and Horton Hears a Netanyahu”— as Cooper, in particular, dissolved into giggles, and Cohen attempted to structure an interview, asking “Walters” about aliens, the state of the media, and how “insufferable” she finds Susan B. Anthony.
The interview concluded with Oteri’s Walters wishing the pair well. “I must leave this physical plane we in the spirit world call ‘Earth School.’ Right now, it seems that you are in the midst of exams. We hope that you all learn the lessons that are before you, unite, and pass with flying colors on this America’s 250th anniversary. With all of my heart, I say: Peace.”
Walters died in December 2022 at the age of 93, eight years after her 2014 retirement. For her swan song, Oteri and Walters interviewed one another in an epic face-to-face meeting on The View. Walters also imitated herself on SNL that same year, referencing Gilda Radner’s iconic impression of her by saying, “Hello, I’m Baba Wawa.”
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Watch the full appearance from Cheri Oteri as Barbara Walters on celebrity.land below.
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