Melissa McCarthy stole SNL

Kristen Stewart did a solid job hosting SNL, but Melissa McCarthy stole the show—arguably the whole season—with her impression of Press Secretary Sean Spicer. There had been no word that McCarthy was coming on, so it was a total surprise, which quickly gave way to a vengeful kind of delight when it became immediately clear that McCarthy’s impression isn’t just a stunt. No, she has Spicer pegged, which in a larger sense lands a direct satire-hit on the current administration.

Something has bugged me about SNL’s political humor in the Trump era, which is that Trump is virtually impossible to satirize—everything happening right now is so ludicrous (and terrifying), how do you even begin to parody it? And that puts SNL in the weird position of having to choose between making us laugh, or designing their sketches specifically to get under Trump’s skin. I think they’ve chosen to irritate Trump, which is great—he shouldn’t spend one comfortable or fun day in office while actively trying to diminish the rights and dignity of people. But it doesn’t make for awesome comedy.

With Sean Spicer though, they have a more accessible target, and with McCarthy they have a tremendous performer of characters. Left to her own devices, McCarthy’s taste isn’t what we might want it to be (see also: Tammy, The Boss), but when performing material written by others, she’s an incredible sketch comedian. And that’s what she brings to lampooning Spicer. In real life, he seems completely overwhelmed and his press briefings are almost surreally hostile. That’s what SNL and McCarthy tap into, and McCarthy doesn’t break once in portraying him as a combative liar who can’t seem to believe that the media is even allowed to ask questions at all.

They also get the small details right—the ill-fitting suit, the forehead, the strident tone of voice, the feeling that at any moment Spicer might actually ram the podium into someone. And there are proper jokes, especially visual gags—McCarthy’s hand gestures and “radical MOOSE LAMBS” take the cake. The only miss is the gum thing, which is funny, but it would have been better if she had just come out chewing and visibly swallowed the gum without comment. But swallowing gum is super gross and I understand not wanting to do that, even for the joke. Which is less impression and more like playing Spicer as an actual character, the hallmark of good sketch work. Think of Phil Hartman—he didn’t impersonate people, he played characters like “Bill Clinton” and “Frank Sinatra”. That’s what McCarthy is doing here. She’s playing “Sean Spicer”.

And that’s why this works better for me than Alec Baldwin as Trump or Kate McKinnon as Kellyanne Conway. How do you parody “alternative facts” when that’s real sh*t Conway says? You can’t! It would be more effective for McKinnon to come out and just perform one of Conway’s rants like a regular monologue and let the insanity stand for itself. But Spicer is a hittable target thanks to his (relatively) more grounded persona. And SNL and McCarthy hit the f*cking bullseye.