McCarthy’s impression was funny, but I’m more curious about what impact this will have on our actual politics, and on the White House’s relationship with the media. In saner times, Tina Fey’s impression of Sarah Palin showed it could re-shape the popular perception of a vice presidential candidate from a major political party. That was before we had a president who actually seems to watch SNL somewhat regularly and complain about it on Twitter.
I appreciated Emily Nussbaum’s take on it:
Me, I thought the Spicer imitation was ultra-effective for one main reason: it will now be impossible to look at him without thinking of it.
— emily nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) February 5, 2017
Also, there’s something very delicious about him being mimicked by a woman, considering the brittle fake-macho of his whole act.
— emily nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) February 5, 2017
Best case scenario, now he can’t get mad without it coming off as hilarious & it messes with his already-shaky equilibrium.
— emily nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) February 5, 2017
It seems possible that Spicer, already a target of Trump’s occasional anger, may face some kind of reckoning for it.
Trump is going to hate #SNLSpicer more than Spicer is & he’s going to hold it against Spicer for being that way more than SNL for mocking it
— Daniel Radosh (@danielradosh) February 5, 2017