--- title: SNL: Sean Spicer Responds to Melissa McCarthy Skit description: Sean Spicer, President Trump's press secretary, thinks Melissa McCarthy could "dial it back" a bit. canonical: https://time.com/4661057/sean-spicer-melissa-mccarthy-snl/ author: Madeline Farber article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-06T15:55:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:36.253Z og:title: Sean Spicer Responds to Melissa McCarthy's 'SNL' Impression og:description: Spicer said she could "dial back a bit" og:url: https://time.com/4661057/sean-spicer-melissa-mccarthy-snl/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt319654a949cb09c0/6988b8e9a988caabf66bae14/sean-spicer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Holds Daily News Briefing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sean Spicer Responds to Melissa McCarthy's 'SNL' Impression twitter:description: Spicer said she could "dial back a bit" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt319654a949cb09c0/6988b8e9a988caabf66bae14/sean-spicer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Responds to Melissa McCarthy's _SNL_ Impression > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Madeline Farber](https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Feb 6, 2017 3:55 PM UTC  White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions from reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Feb. 1, 2017. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions from reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Feb. 1, 2017. Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Madeline Farber](https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Feb 6, 2017 3:55 PM UTC Sean Spicer, President Trump’s press secretary, thinks Melissa McCarthy could “dial it back” a bit. In a _Saturday Night Live_ skit over the weekend, [McCarthy](http://time.com/4660549/melissa-mccarthy-sean-spicer-saturday-night-live-donald-trump/) pretended to be Spicer during a White House press briefing, portraying him as an angry, gum-chewing spokesman who bullies reporters. Spicer responded to the skit during the [Super Bowl](http://time.com/4660730/super-bowl-2017-patriots-win/) on Sunday. He told [Extra](http://extratv.com/2017/02/05/white-house-press-secretary-sean-spicer-reacts-to-melissa-mccarthys-snl-skit/) that he thought it was a “really funny show,” but McCarthy could “dial it back” a bit, adding that “she needs to slow down on the gum chewing; way too many pieces in there.” Spicer first heard about the skit on Sunday morning, according to Extra, and was bombarded with text messages — so much so that he thought there was a “national emergency,” Extra reports. As for Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of President Trump, Spicer had a more serious response. “Alec has gone from funny to mean, and that’s unfortunate. _SNL_ used to be really funny. There’s a streak of meanness now that they’ve crossed over to mean,” Spicer told Extra. Trump has repeatedly called out Baldwin’s portrayal of him. In mid-January, the President tweeted that _Saturday Night Live_ is the “[worst of NBC](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/820764134857969666?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw).” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4661057/sean-spicer-melissa-mccarthy-snl/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4661057/sean-spicer-melissa-mccarthy-snl/"},"headline":"White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Responds to Melissa McCarthy's SNL Impression","datePublished":"2017-02-06T15:55:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:36.253Z","description":"Spicer said she could \"dial back a bit\"","url":"https://time.com/4661057/sean-spicer-melissa-mccarthy-snl/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","SNL","melissa mccarthy","onetime","sean spicer"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt319654a949cb09c0/6988b8e9a988caabf66bae14/sean-spicer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeline Farber","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt319654a949cb09c0/6988b8e9a988caabf66bae14/sean-spicer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Holds Daily News Briefing","caption":"White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Holds Daily News Briefing","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4661057/sean-spicer-melissa-mccarthy-snl/","name":"White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Responds to Melissa McCarthy's SNL Impression"}}]}] ```