Spicy Spicer and Melissa McCarthy

2017

Date: 4 February 2017 · Place: Saturday Night Live, Studio 8H, NBC, New York · Figures: Sean Spicer, White House press secretary · Melissa McCarthy, impressionist · Tags: Politics, SNL, Television 01. The Podium Charge Melissa McCarthy plays Sean Spicer in the Saturday Night Live cold open on 4 February 2017. The performance, podium-shoving, gum-chewing, hostile to the press corps, lands as the canonical political impression of the Trump first year. The sketch is cited as a White House irritant by Politico the following week. McCarthy returns four more times in 2017. She wins the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in September. 02. Easter Bunny Spicer resigns on 21 July 2017. Photographs of his last day at the White House are screenshotted into reaction images for the rest of the year. By December he is appearing on the Emmys himself, wheeling out a McCarthy-style podium. The episode marks the high-water mark of mainstream television impressions producing instantly memefiable images of a White House. Sources • Saturday Night Live, cold open, 4 February 2017 • Tara Palmeri, Politico, 'Trump not pleased with McCarthy's Spicer impression', 6 February 2017 • KnowYourMeme entry, 'Spicey'