Saturday Night Live: Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer runs amok in NYC
Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer defines this season of Saturday Night Live in so many ways. The impression is timely, ridiculous, and uproariously funny. It’s also not the sort of thing anyone would expect before seeing it on the air.
Think back to the first appearance of the character during the Kristen Stewart episode. There was no announcement beforehand that it was coming, so in the moments after her debut the entire internet exploded. This became an internet sensation and one of the funniest things from the show in 2017. McCarthy resurfaced on two other shows to slightly-diminishing returns — the appearances were still funny, but the original game of the sketch was found out. The Easter sketch had an extra challenge given that McCarthy filmed it while in Los Angeles, which made it difficult to surround her with the same typical backdrop.
Today, McCarthy took things up a notch. She traveled around New York City today on Spicer’s traveling podium today, in costume, likely preparing some sort of pre-tape sketch for the show. Maybe this is a part of the Cold Open, or something that is going to be coming up after the opening monologue. Clearly, the expectation is that there will be people who see the sketch and find it hilarious even if it’s so clearly spoiled in advance. You don’t do a stunt like this and expect major news networks to not pick up on it.
This should also be the grand hurrah for the Spicer impersonation for season 42 of the show, given how little sense it would make for McCarthy to bring the impression back for the finale one week removed from presenting it here. Next week should serve as more of a big finale for one of the other big impressions of the season in Donald Trump as played by Alec Baldwin. The future for that impression remains murky, with Baldwin potentially determining if he wants to continue doing the gig. It is a tremendous source of attention and publicity, but on the flip side of that, it also serves as a schedule commitment.
What do you think about McCarthy doing something so public as Spicer for this episode of Saturday Night Live? Share now in the comments below.
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