The perfect woman for the job. Melissa McCarthy hilariously nailed her impression of White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live on Saturday, February 4, channeling the suit-wearing official to a tee.
McCarthy, 46, looked nearly unrecognizable in an ill-fitting gray suit, lightly combed-over hair and angry expression as she stood behind a podium in one of the night’s best skits.
“Settle down, settle down, settle down!” McCarthy-as-Spicer yelled. “Before we begin, I know that myself and the press have gotten off to a rocky start. … When I say rocky, I mean in the sense of Rocky the movie because I came out here to punch you in the face, and also I don’t talk so good.”
From there, McCarthy didn’t hold back as she mocked everything from Spicer’s penchant for chewing (and swallowing) gum, his disdain for the press and his tendency to talk in confusing, convoluted tangents during press conferences.
When Bobby Moynihan, playing New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush, asked McCarthy-as-Spicer about President Trump’s immigration ban, the faux press secretary had a mind-numbingly roundabout nonanswer.
“It’s not a ban,” McCarthy-as-Spicer said. “It’s not a ban. The travel ban is not a ban, which makes it not a ban.” At this, Moynihan-as-Thrush pointed out that the president himself had tweeted about the executive order, using the word “ban.”
“Yeah, exactly. You just said that,” McCarthy-as-Spicer said. “He’s quoting you. It’s your words. He’s using your words when you use the words and he uses them back, it’s circular using of the word, and that’s from you.”
Other highlights of the skit included a mini-tirade accompanied by props (McCarthy-as-Spicer pulled out a stuffed animal moose and lamb to mime “moose-lamb”), the use of a supersoaker to “wash that filthy lie out of” a journalist’s mouth, and a guest appearance by Betsy DeVos (Kate McKinnon.)
Watch the hilarious clip above!
