We regret to inform you that it really was the former White House Press Secretary on stage during Stephen Colbert’s Emmys 2017 opener.
At the 69th Emmy Awards, Stephen Colbert launched into an opening monologue chock-full of Donald Trump jokes — to his credit, one of the jokes was about how easy it is to make those jokes in the room in which he stood i.e. a room full (mostly) of liberals. The most genuinely shocking moment was when the Emmys brought out the real and literal Sean Spicer. Yes, that was truly him. And while Colbert jokingly thanked Melissa McCarthy after the bit, we reiterate: It was not McCarthy. (McCarthy did win for her impression, taking home the Guest Actress Emmy earlier in the week for her Spicer impressions on Saturday Night Live. So there was that.)
In any case, Spicer came out to reprise his infamous crowd press conference. You know, the one where he tried to stick to the party line that the crowds at Donald Trump’s inauguration were the biggest of all time when they very blatantly, factually were not. Yeah, Spicer riffed on how the crowd at the Emmys was the biggest too. Or something. We were distracted.
Generally speaking, the whole thing was frustrating in a peak politics-Hollywood-style way. If you’re going to get political, get political. Don’t bring out a man who did a lot of damage by willingly participating in propagating the lies and crimes of an abhorrent administration, just because he is no longer employed by said administration.
Bringing out Spicer, the real Spicer, as if he’s in on the joke, and now one of the liberals that made Colbert (and the Emmys organization) feel comfortable making all their other political jokes, isn’t remotely funny.
Don’t ruffle Trump’s hair. Don’t joke with Sean Spicer.