How Sean Spicer Really Feels About Melissa McCarthy’s ‘SNL’ Parody Of Him

It’s probably been awhile since you thought about the spiciest press secretary to grace President Donald Trump’s White House. But Sean Spicer is back — and he wrote a book. For his promotion tour, he went on Megyn Kelly TODAY and addressed what it was like for Spicer to watch Melissa McCarthy impersonate him on SNL.

After playing part of a comical clip of McCarthy satirizing Spicer addressing the press at the White House podium, Spicer laughed with Kelly. After the initial chuckling and questioning, Kelly asked: “What was it like to watch that?”

Spicer first responded by fawning over McCarthy and her talent before diving into a monologue that didn't quite answer Kelly’s question. He said a few words about where his life took him, including working for the Republican Party, serving for the United States Navy, and, eventually, behind the podium in Trump's White House.

Well, first, I would just say that Melissa is an unbelievably talented actor. I grew up in Rhode Island — in a small town in Rhode Island — with a really tight-knit family. And we weren’t politically involved. … I was going to Washington to fulfill my dream of getting a job on Capitol Hill.

Then he added, “Regardless of whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, the idea to stand behind that podium is — it’s surreal. It’s an honor. It literally was my American dream. But then to have Melissa McCarthy do that and just be part of the history that’s in this building,” he told Kelly, referring to the NBC News offices in New York where Saturday Night Live and the TODAY show are taped.

Spicer previously addressed the McCarthy SNL skits on an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late night how back in September of 2017. While laughing, he joked to Kimmel the impressions had “cost me a lot of money in therapy.” However, he admitted: “that was kind of funny.”

Spicer eventually got in on the McCarthy parodies with a surprise appearance at the 2017 Emmy Awards in which Spicer poked fun at himself saying: “This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period — both in person and around the world,” he said behind a podium with an “Emmys Hollywood” sign on it, as Time reported. This was all in reference to the press conference after Trump’s inauguration in 2017. At the time of the inauguration he told the press the event garnered “the total largest audience witnessed in person and around the globe,”

Throughout the interview, Kelly pressed Spicer on lies he seemed to have told while serving the president, particularly at the inauguration.

Like any good Spicer would, the former press secretary peppered in references to his book as he answered Kelly's questions. The book is called “The Briefing: Politics, the Press and the President," and will come out on July 24.

According to an article in the Orlando Sentiniel about Spicer's book tour, he writes in the book: “I don’t think we will ever again see a candidate like Donald trump. His high-wire act is one that few could ever follow. He is a unicorn, riding a unicorn over a rainbow.”

While talking with Kelly, Spicer also said he had a lot of “admiration” for Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is currently serving in Spicer’s former role as press secretary.

And while the interview hit on quite a few topics that seemed to be important to Spicer, he got his message across in the first 30 seconds of the interview: “Let’s just put it this way: I’d rather be sitting in this chair than standing behind a podium.”