Melissa McCarthy’s surprise unannounced appearance on Saturday Night Live to take on Donald Trump‘s press secretary Sean Spicer is the reason why we sit through some of the more bland and overlong sketches on the show. You just never know when you’ll get that wonderful surprise.
In the eight-minute sketch, a nearly unrecognizable McCarthy perfectly captured the frosty, often acrimonious relationship between Spicer and the press, the secretary’s brash and confrontational manner, his odd phrasing and the circuitousness of his answers to direct questions.
“I know that the press and myself have gotten off to a rocky start, and when I say ‘rocky start,’ I mean it in the sense of Rocky the movie because I came out here to punch you,” “Spicer” yelled.
“I’d like to begin today by apologizing on behalf of you to me for how you have treated me these last two weeks, and that apology is not accepted!”
“Spicer” also provided an accurate recap of Trump’s Supreme Court judge announcement: “When he entered the room, the crowd greeted him with a standing ovation which lasted a full 15 minutes, and you can check the tape on that. Everyone was smiling, everyone was happy, the men all had erections, and every single one of the women were ovulating left and right. And no one was sad; those are the facts forever.”
“Spicer” then fielded questions, barely, about the Muslim ban and Steve Bannon, using props to explain the executive order to the press.
Secretary of Education nominee Betty DeVos, played by Kate McKinnon, was also introduced to field some simple questions. “I don’t know anything about school, but I do think there should be a school, probably Jesus school, and I think it should have walls and roof and gun for potential grizzly,” DeVos told the press.
“Spicer” ended the press conference by announcing “And live from New York, it’s Saturday Night,” even though the sketch arrived mid-show.
Melissa McCarthy lampooned White House press secretary Sean Spicer in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch where she taunted reporters as “losers,” fired a water gun at the press corps and even used the lectern to ram a Wall Street Journal journalist.
“SNL” opened with Alec Baldwin reprising his President Donald Trump and phoning foreign leaders with chief strategist Stephen Bannon by his side. Bannon, with hood and scythe, was portrayed as the grim reaper. He nodded affirmatively after the successive calls to countries like Australia and Germany dissolved into Baldwin vowing, “Prepare to go to war.”
But it was McCarthy’s mid-show sketch impersonating a pugnacious Spicer that sparked the bigger response in the NBC show’s second episode since the inauguration. McCarthy’s Spicer insisted that “no one was sad” at Trump’s supreme court nominee unveiling. “Those are the facts forever,” she said, before accidentally giving her email password. Off to the side, she kept a CNN reporter, chastised as “fake news,” jailed in a cage.
“I want to begin tonight by apologizing on behalf of you to me for how you have treated me these last two weeks,” McCarthy said in opening the mock press briefing. “And that apology is not accepted.”
Parodying a similar exchange, she then haggled with reporters over the use of the word “ban” to describe Trump’s recent immigration order. Trump and Spicer have both used the word, but McCarthy defended it: “He’s using your words. When you use the word and he uses them back, it’s circular using of the word and that’s from you.”
When a Wall Street Journal reporter asked if she was OK, McCarthy picked up the lectern and charged. She warned that she would put the reporter “in the corner with CNN.”
Host Kristen Stewart began the show with a monologue recalling Trump’s tweets about her romantic life. In 2012 when the actress dated “Twilight” co-star Robert Pattinson, Trump tweeted that Pattinson should “dump” her and that he could “do much better.”
“To be fair, I don’t think Donald Trump hated me,” Stewart said. “I think he’s in love with my boyfriend.”
She added: “The president is not a huge fan of me. But that is so OK. And Donald, if you didn’t like me then, you’re really probably not going to like me now. Because I’m hosting ‘SNL’ and I’m, like, so gay, dude.”
Though Trump has frequently criticized “SNL” and its sketches skewering him, he had not responded to Saturday’s show as of early Sunday afternoon.
As Stewart began introducing the show, she let slip an expletive. She immediately apologized and guessed that she wouldn’t ever be allowed to host again.