Last week, I waited a day to discuss Saturday Night Live and Melissa McCarthy’s brilliant mockery of White House press secretary Sean Spicer. My reasoning was that Donald Trump would probably throw a hissy fit about it on Twitter, and I wanted to package the whole story together. At the end of the day, Trump managed to stay quiet about it, but as we learned a few days later, he was quiet because he was so disturbed. Apparently, Trump has buyer’s remorse about Spicer, and McCarthy’s send-up left the president feeling unsettled. You know why? Because Trump thinks having a woman play Sean Spicer is a sign of weakness. Seriously. So, obviously, SNL just had to get Melissa to return for last night’s episode. They even made it the cold-open.
The writing on these Spicer skits are so dead-on, it’s scary-funny. “Uh-oh, it’s Moana!” Everything about this is perfect.
Alec Baldwin was the host on last night’s episode, which incidentally was one of the highest-rated episodes in three decades. SNL’s ratings are now on a 22-year-high, and they’re up 22% from where they were last year. Much of that is due the razor-sharp political skits and Alec Baldwin’s dead-on Trump impression. Plus, I would argue that SNL has a particularly deep bench of talent these days with Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, Beck Bennett, Leslie Jones and more. Anyway, Baldwin only did one skit as Trump and it was… good? I mean, it was funny, but it’s terrifying how all of this is based on reality.
Here’s the “Jake Tapper” skit, where Kellyanne Conway is a Fatal Attraction-type predator trying to convince journalists to let her on cable news shows.
Weekend Update went on too long, but they did include Senator Elizabeth Warren (played by Kate McKinnon). The Sen. Warren bit comes up around the 4:30 mark of this video.
This Russell Stover commercial wasn’t political, it was just hilarious.
Screencaps courtesy of SNL.
“No President has ever been trolled so hard by so many and been so deserving” – Literally all of Twitter
First of all, Kate McKinnon needs a pay raise for how she kicked a$$ in every skit. God, I have a massive crush on that woman!!! She played Jeff Sessions, Kellyanne Conway, AND Elizabeth Warren! She nailed each one and was hilarious! McKinnon doesn’t look like she’s had her soul sucked out her body, so she can’t pull off looking exactly like Conway without A LOT more makeup. Maybe an younger, pre-deal-with-the-devil Conway. Maybe.
Best sketch, Fatal Attraction Kellyanne. The skit really captured how scary and desperate the real Kellyanne seems to become each day. Also, this skit helps to stop the normalizing of Kellyanne that I think SNL was guilty of before the election.
Donald Trump just issued an executive order for Homeland Security to detain Melissa McCarthy citing bigly threats to ego. McCarthy’s impersonation of Sean Spicer is so good that I think of her whenever I see the real Sean Spicer. That’s how you know the impersonation is on point! It reminds me of Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin, after awhile the caricature is going to become all that we see. There are reports that Emperor Baby Fists is already looking to replace Spicer. SNL Spicer’s moving podium was awesome! I bet the real Spicer wishes he had one of them so he could jet out of the White House at the first possible moment. And OMG Melissa can hold her leg so freakin high!
A simple but moving ad aired during SNL from a group representing over 500,000 veterans. “You want to be a legitimate president, Sir? Then act like one.” **Veteran mic drop**
http://deadline.com/2017/02/votevets-commercial-saturday-night-live-donald-trump-watch-1201909037/
Thanks for posting that Vet ad link- excellent.
I’m a member of VoteVets and donate to them. Ad was spectacular.
Fabulous ad!
Also, the Kellyanne piece was so great. When she got up at the end like “Death Becomes Her” I about died laughing!
Kate McKinnon/SNL writers have done such a great job tapping into what absolute psychopath Kellyanne Conway is. The brilliant KA as Roxie skit and now this Fatal Attraction skit show KA is really as dirty and demented as Steve Bannon. *shivers*
I’m actually relieved that Kate McKinnon’s Kellyanne is coming across as creepy to everyone. I personally cringe because SNL makes her into a “hot young sexy babe with some cra-cra”. IMO, she probably loves it and so would Drump, that’s why they don’t complain.
If she were played by someone with her level of unattractiveness, they would bitch all day because to those two narcissists the way the look on screen matters. She got dermabrassion and face work done as soon as the campaign was over. And she wears way more makeup now to be TV ready.
When I see Kellyanne interviews she comes across as ugly and evil as Bannon. She was the other face of the campaign by going on TV shows to tell lies about HRC and turn every criticism of Drump into a HRC beatdown. There is nothing hot or sexy about her. But I think it’s hard to attack her without appearing sexist so they went with a pretty version of her to compensate.
McCarthy is brilliant as Spicer but I thought the new skit was very similar to last week’s. Probably because he is so predictable. The reveal of him wearing Ivanka’s stuff was hilarious, though.
I thought the Kellyann one was great, it really ripped her as the desperate, lying sack of garbage she is. The part where she comes back to life was funny, the rest was just really chilling to me. As Melly said above, it’s long past time to stop normalizing her. Like Bannon, she’s no joke.
I know there’s a lot of debate about who should play Bannon but I like that they’re keeping him the grim reaper (for now anyway). It sends a powerful message that he’s that much of a monster that having someone impersonate him would be too humanizing, imo.
Kate McKinnon is a revelation in every skit. As soon as she shows up my husband and I get the giggles. She’s such a delight and so incredibly talented, as are Strong and Bennett. I would say Che is the other strongest person, he carries Weekend Update and is hilarious and has perfect comedic timing.
I’m surprised you put Leslie Jones in with them. To me her only talent is when she comes on Weekend Update to have a funny rant about something, but even that is getting old as it’s very one-note. In skits she usually tanks, has no acting skills, and fumbles quite a bit. I’m surprised they keep putting her in skits, she always takes the whole skit down a notch. Sorry to say it because I do enjoy her personality, but she’s no actress 🙁
They have it so down, it’s a treat to watch. There can’t be a parody dark enough to show how vile Kellyanne is, but the Fatal Attraction sketch was HYSTERICAL. I can see her at home on the floor, clicking the light on and off ala Glenn Close. I can envision the WH staff in a dark room trying to figure out how to make it stop!!!!! Get used to it, they’ve only just begun. Big ups to Melissa, she is force of nature.
Loved the Putin bit “He is my little American happy meal” lmao. The guy playing him (I keep forgetting his name) and Kate are brilliant in their skits.
I’m confused, how has SNL normalized Trump or anyone near him? I watch their skits & I laugh pretty hard at Alec Baldwin, Kate McKinnon & Melissa McCarthy. They haven’t normalized them, they have skewered them. We need this right now.
Well, they let Trump host SNL during the campaign, for starters.
They usually extend invitations to all candidates at some point. McCain hosted one. Palin was on too. George & Barbara Bush have done SNL.
@lightpurple right, that’s Just the point. They treated him as they did every “normal” candidate, even though it was very clear from early on that he wasn’t one bit normal and was very detrimental.
I do think SNL has come a long way in seeing the reality of who he is, if they could go back I hope they wouldn’t have him on again.
They were never, ever going to top last week’s Spicer skit, but this week’s was still good. I loved, LOVED the fact that they had him in Ivanka brand bangles and heels. Of course that was a reference to KellyAnne and her “free commercial,” but I also feel like it was a nod to the fact that Trump was most disturbed by Spicer being played by a woman. Brilliant.
Suddenly seeing those heels, it’s where I laughed the loudest. Despite his fowl lack of humor … even Trump must have inadvertently laughed when he saw that.
Also the Segway podium lol, “you don’t have a chance against Spicy”. The next time I speak at a podium I hope its a Segway one.
SNL skits are so funny. However Donal Trump stopped tweeting about them, so now we have no feedback what makes him tick. If the SNL producers do not know what gets under his skin how are they going to make them funny?
I think we pretty much know what gets under his skin now. Everything. Plus I don’t think he can shut up for long. He’s been advised to do so, I’ll bet, but he was advised to not tweet during the campaign and he couldn’t do that.
They already know what gets under his skin and it’s exactly what they are doing. You know he’s been counseled to stop watching SNL and he probably has because let’s face it the man has zero impulse control….if he saw the episode, he would have tweeted about it. Which is fine because what he can’t control are all of the retweets and you know he is going ballistic every time this pops up 🙂 🙂
He’s been random tweeting this Sunday morning, but no SNL (yet). His tweets suggest just how spastic his attention span must be.
I hope SNL get some nominations at 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards. This was really good tv and I haven’t laugh so hard in a while on SNL. KEEP IT UP.
Excellent job again Melissa … now that I know what to expect it is not quite as shockingly funny but still amazing. I was hoping to see Rosie as Bannon. Hopefully, in time that will happen but it has to be sterling when it does.
I thought this headline was just hilarious when I saw it today:
Newspaper Mistakenly Runs Picture of Alec Baldwin on ‘SNL’ Instead of Trump
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/newspaper-mistakenly-runs-picture-alec-baldwin-snl-instead-trump-n719846
Omg perfect. It’s really hard to tell them apart and i’d rather look at Alec’s face than the crazy one’s.
You guys, I’m really afraid Kate McKinnon is going to die from exhaustion before this is all over.
The motorized podium at the end of the Spicy skit had me on the floor.
McKinnon was brilliant as the whacked-out Kellyanne Conway/Alex Forrest! 🔪🐇
OMG that was PERFECTION! My first thought when she fell out of the window: “If only!” But when she resurrected herself… “DAMN!”
To me it reminded me of the terminator where its so evil and wrong it just keeps getting up and WON’T DIE!
Love Beck Bennett’s Putin.
That tiny gavel cracked me up.
Ha, I know, it was great. I love that they’re making him the complete buffoon/puppet while portraying Bannon and Kellyanne as the truly evil demons that they are.
That Kellyanne skit tore her apart for the lying psycho that she is. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Tiny Hands couldn’t hold anything any bigger… and I mean ANYTHING! 😉
The CB uploader doesn’t work in Canada. I use YouTube.
Speaking of YouTube, go there and watch Adam Hills -The Last Leg, especially the latest 2 or 3 episodes. Hills’ attitude and advice is to not bother berating trump, but just to keep mocking him. We love love love Adam Hills and his show.
I have a crush on Kate McKinnon
+1
SNL and Alec Baldwin have legit helped me through these past few months. I live in BFE Kentucky where almost everyone was pro-Trump. I’ve started looking so forward to their skits and this site so I can remember I’m not alone in fearing and laughing at the crazy. Of course, the women around here don’t “get into politics” (that’s for men LOL) unless it involves being pro-life :/ Not an easy place to live for a feminist lib.
Hang in there, Shannon. You have many kindred spirits, even if you have to find them online.
I live in Indiana, Shannon. I’m with you, girl!
Fellow Kentuckian here too, Shannon. I am so with you. I am literally surrounded by confederate flags and people who vote against their own best interests. No joke. God help us all.
The writers have more material than they need to craft these spot-on skits. Shrub and Bubba also provided a lot of fodder, but nothing compared to the amount this administration is giving them.
The writers could likely do multiple daily skits on the leader and those around him.
All the skits are awesome; Alec, Kate, and McArthy are spot-on. But yes all I could think watching some of these is, this practically happened! The jokes write themselves thanks to this fake administration.
If I were a writer on that show, I would be so happy right now.
Who thought there’d come a day that SNL would be known as the show that had the stones to show things as they are? All during the election I felt sick seeing the regular media roll over and actually “report” on all of Baby Fists’ antics. Why did they give him screen time or column inches?
SNL has been nailing it and I had so many laugh out loud (while crying on the inside) moments with these skits. I love love Kate McKinnon. She carries the damn show! Rooting for them to keep crushing the ratings and knocking Baby Fists down. I can’t wait for him to go away or be put away. Even 100 days in office is too long.
That chocolates commercial was funny. I really liked the George Washington Carver peanut butter joke; I like that SNL does subtle stuff like that within a broad joke.
And Melissa McCarthy’s powered podium? I guffawed!
I liked the Bill Clinton chocolate. Ha! Ha!
Re the ‘Spicer’ sketch, it was always going to be a really tough gig trying to match the delicious, laugh-out-loud brilliance of last week’s so yes, this one felt a little ‘been there done that’ by comparison, but it still had some hilariously funny moments, thanks entirely to MM’s sublime ability to capture the essence of a man, clearly run ragged, who knows he’s completely out of his depth. She’s what makes it so funny. Last week’s prop box (still laughing at the Moose Lambs) was inspired but it kind of felt surplus to requirements this time.
MM knows how to make less more so I hope the writers step back a little bit, keep the gimmicks to a minimum. and just let her ‘Spicer’ shine.
Agreed. The first time was just so amazing to behold because it was so new, unexpected and uncanny.
Yes, exactly, a totally unexpected gift.
The joy of Melissa’s ‘Spicer’ is how brilliantly and effortlessly she inhabits and exposes, with just a look and a gum-chewing gesture, the (real) panic at the heart of his inarticulate bluster.
Less really would be more here.
I laughed at hiw MM’spicer could nit pronounce the names and in real life he did not even nother in checking the correct pronunciation before one of his press conferences. I was in shock when he butchered my president’s last names. Seeing the sketch making fun of that was great!
I think is so disrespectful, how can he not even make the effort? They are seen by the world and by. World politicians.
Its the Trump administration they make zero preparations for everything.
When McCarthy did that high kick to reveal her shoe, was that her leg? I mean, I guess it was, but the angle looked a bit off.
She’s pretty funny as Spicer but Baldwin really has Trump’s face especially when he puckers his lips. I’m so concerned Baldwin is so good as Trump, Baldwin will be offered a movie role as Trump and then the Trump motion picture will be everywhere….. as if we don’t have enough Trump as it is.
I think so. She’s very gifted at physical comedy and often does the splits or close to it (e.g., the scene in Bridesmaids where she blocks the path of her love interest by doing the splits against the wall of the airplane).
I loved the People’s Court skit. Trump saying he was calling in his trusted family to testify. Trump Jr. stands up but Putin comes strutting in, bare chested as always! Hilarious when he stopped to do high fives with Bannon/Grim Reaper, then Trump Jr. Then Putin did his little speech, showed he was in control of Trump physically and mentally, then strutted back out.
I would like an Ivanka skit soon.
I loved the People’s Court skit also.
Melissa McCarthy and Alec Baldwin are both BRILLIANT!
That Kellyanne Conway skit was brilliant. Kate McKinnon is just amazing.
I really think they should being in Rosie for Bannon and Denis Leary for KA.
Deviation from his perception of gender norms REALLY gets under his skin. Having all women play his male advisers/staff and a man play his female rep would be perfection considering the ‘dress like women’ comment/
The combination of ‘weak’ men and ‘mannish’ woman would drive him batty
Leigh, I totally agree with you. Let the female actresses play the “men” in the administration and male actors play the females. Would love to see Rosie as Bannon,Leslie Jones as Trump, Denis Leary as Kellyann, maybe Kate McKinnon could do pence. Plus I love Ady Bryant. Who could she be? But the best one of all would be the reaction from Trump when a guy plays ivanka!