Sean Spicer shared his thoughts on Melissa McCarthy’s ~Spicey~ “SNL” impression
On Friday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer resigned from his position after six months on the job. But Spicer will live on in many of our memories (if not our hearts), for the ~Spicey~ impressions offered by Saturday Night Live. We loved them — but Spicer himself was not a fan of Melissa McCarthy’s spot-on portrayal of the beleaguered spokesperson.
Maybe if we were being teased on national television, we’d be upset, too. But hey, them’s the brakes.
Over the weekend, Spicey did one last interview over at Fox News, where host Sean Hannity asked the Republican what he thought of SNL’s now-pretty-iconic impressions of him.
Spicer was not thrilled at the “Spicey” gags.
He responded, “When it’s funny, it’s funny.” But then he thought about it for a minute, pressed by Hannity, and changed his mind.
“I think that there were parts of it that were funny, but there’s a lot of it that was over the line. It wasn’t funny,” he added. In fact, Spicer said, it was often “stupid, or silly, or malicious.”
Spicey out. pic.twitter.com/LAfSm7I7Gz
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) July 21, 2017
Oh. Sorry, Spicey.
Spicer then flipped again, sort of like he was often forced to do at the podium. “But there were some skits on late-night television that I did crack up at. So sometimes it can be funny. Some of the memes you have to crack up about. But sometimes it goes from funny to mean,” he said.
Sean Spicer is a wonderful person who took tremendous abuse from the Fake News Media - but his future is bright!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017
That’s a pretty fair assessment coming from the butt of most of the jokes. And it’s true that Spicer had a tough run as press secretary from the get-go. From behind the podium, he was often viewed as stressed, combative with reporters, or just downright confused. It might not have been all his fault — defending the Trump administration in a divisive political climate on national television and Twitter a few times a week can’t be easy.
He was also the first press secretary to have every single briefing broadcast on cable news, until the White House communications team banned television cameras in the briefing room. (Another first.) McCarthy’s impression of Spicer perfectly embodied a lot of that conflict in the briefing room, and came at just the right moment after the inauguration, when many Americans needed a laugh.
Is it sad that I'm sad that Spicey's gone? Mainly because SNL won't have Melissa McCarthy anymore #SeanSpicer #spicey pic.twitter.com/RN268h0JcM
— Ashley C. Byers (@ashleycbyers) July 21, 2017
Alas, that’s all over now, and the SNL team will have to find someone else to play new press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who will officially take over for Spicer in August. Trump also hired a new overall communications director (which is rumored to be the reason behind Spicer’s departure), Anthony Scaramucci, who is quite the character, too.
