Why did Sean Spicer do the Emmys? Did no one ever tell him they're not laughing with you they're laughing at you?

The yearning for acceptance from the popular kids must claw at poor Spicey.

Via WaPo: "Here's how it went down, with late-night host Stephen Colbert — who happens to be one of Trump's most unapologetic and high-profile critics — setting up the gag:"

COLBERT: What really matters to Donald Trump is ratings. You've got to have the big numbers. And I certainly hope we achieve that tonight. Unfortunately, at this point, we have no way of knowing how big our audience is. I mean, is there anyone who could say how big the audience is. Sean, do you know?

(Spicer glides out with a podium, Melissa McCarthy-style.)

SPICER: This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period — both in person and around the world.

COLBERT: Wow. That really soothes my fragile ego. I could understand why you'd want one of these guys around. Melissa McCarthy, everybody, give it up!

The WaPo headline calls the cameo "yucky," and the column-writer, Aaron Blake is not grossed out because Spicey played along despite contempt for him and for the President he once served, but because:

... Spicer yukking it up over one of his most demonstrably false statements from the White House lectern strongly suggests this is just what spokesmen are supposed to do. The president asked him to do it, so it must be okay. Damn the truth.

Blake thinks this comedy "normalize[s]" the lying/bullshit/puffery of press secretaries.

[L]aughing at flouting the truth... serves notice to other spokesmen that they needn't worry about being credible.

Blake belongs to the that's-not-funny school of comedy appreciation. I'm surprised at his reaction. I thought Spicer got conned into participating in political satire that hurts him and the politicians with whom he's allied himself. I think America deserves better political satire and that it was a bad idea to load the Emmys show with political satire — especially partisan political satire (why alienate half your potential audience?). But I think comedy, done well, is powerful, important speech. The Spicer bit was criticism of the dishonesty of the White House press secretary. It didn't slough it off or "normalize" it. If the bullshit is normal, there's no joke in Spicer's line.

Now, I can see that Blake could have said that just allowing Spicer into the Emmys party sends the message that he's not completely toxic. And perhaps that's the sad-sack reason Spicer did the show, like the high school kid who's pleased to get an invitation to popular kid's party...



Well, in that movie the popular kids get it in the end. The bullying and the hate can backfire. And we all know what happened when "Laugh-In" included Nixon:

More Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer on "SNL" — nicely done.

I like the way the second go-round with this was good and not just overmilking something that was successful the first time. I also like this thing of the female cast members impersonating men. Not to take anything away from the male cast members who have impersonated females over the years — not that I can think of any (other than Dan Aykroyd doing Julia Child) — but it takes something special for a woman who's worked hard to get perceived as physically attractive to put on a balding-man wig and show her face without the "smoky eye" getup.

Not only did Melissa McCarthy play Sean Spicer, but — in the same clip above — Kate McKinnon plays Jeff Sessions. And later in the show Leslie Jones makes her bid to play Donald Trump:



AND: For those of you who are about to tell me "SNL" only goes after conservatives, it's not true. Look at this sketch, which went on early in last night's show:



I have a few different theories about this: 1. They realize comedy is better when nothing is sacred and you go after everybody, 2. They know "Portlandia" is better than "SNL" and they're trying to get some of that style of humor, 3. They really do just want to go after conservatives but they know it won't work if they only go after conservatives, so sometimes they bank an anti-liberal sketch to improve their credibility.