Sean Spicer Criticizes Melissa McCarthy’s ‘Malicious’ ‘SNL’ Sketches
Sean Spicer criticized Melissa McCarthy‘s Saturday Night Live “malicious” portrayal of him in an interview that occurred just hours after the White House press secretary resigned from the role.
“I’m a prankster, I like a good joke. I think when it’s funny, it’s funny. Sometimes it goes from funny to mean,” Spicer told Sean Hannity Friday night.
“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. It was stupid, or silly, or malicious.”
Spicer’s comments marked the first time he spoke openly about the McCarthy caricature, a.k.a. “Spicey,” one of the highlights from SNL‘s Season 42. The actress played the White House press secretary in four sketches – three times as an unannounced guest – expertly poking fun at Spicer’s habit of mistakenly creating words, using props, chastising the press and flat-out fibbing on behalf of the president.
While Spicer didn’t approve of the McCarthy impression – which reportedly also lowered Donald Trump’s opinion about his press secretary – he did admit that his tenure wasn’t completely humorless. “There were some skits on late-night television that I did crack up at,” Spicer said without specifying. “You have to have a little bit of a thick skin if you’re going to do this.”
Following Spicer’s resignation after Anthony Scaramucci was named White House Communications director, SNL bid farewell to McCarthy’s portrayal with a Twitter tribute:
Spicey out. pic.twitter.com/LAfSm7I7Gz
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) July 21, 2017