Sean Spicer has responded to critics of his appearance at Sunday night’s Emmy Awards ceremony
Sean Spicer says his surprise Emmy Awards appearance was a chance to have some fun, and suggested Tuesday that people who were upset by it were taking things too seriously.
Clearly, not everyone was laughing, however.
For Emmys host Stephen Colbert, there’s also a risk that a joke he engineered could wind up doing collateral damage.
The former White House press secretary’s cameo was Colbert’s idea, and they arranged to maximize the surprise factor through Chris Licht, the Colbert producer who knew Spicer from his background in news.
Colbert set the joke up by saying there was no way of knowing how many people would be watching the Emmys, then Spicer wheeled out from behind a podium to say ‘this will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys period, both in person and around the world.’
‘Wow,’ Colbert replied. ‘That really soothes my fragile ego.’
Pictured is Spicer speaking on stage at the 69th Emmy Awards last night. At the awards, he was part of a joke meant to evoke his false claims as White House Press Secretary regarding the size of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration crowds
Colbert has received criticism for the stunt. He has been accused of legitimizing Spicer. To which Spicer offered a suggestion: lighten up. ‘People are reading too much into this,’ he said
The clear reference was to Spicer’s first appearance in the White House press room, arguing against photographic evidence about how large President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day audience was.
In an unfortunate parallel, Emmy viewership on Sunday essentially tied last year with the smallest ever for the television awards show.
The Nielsen company estimated that 11.4 million people watched Sunday’s presentation of the Emmy Awards, roughly equivalent to last year’s show honoring the year’s best in television.
Last year’s audience of 11.3 million people was the lowest ever for the Emmy Awards.
Trump critics resented the apparent effort to ‘normalize’ Spicer and make light of the idea of not telling the truth in the White House press room.
‘The message of his presence was not only that we can all laugh at his service and sycophancy in the Trump administration, but that he’s willing to laugh with us,’ wrote Frank Bruni in a column for The New York Times titled ‘The Shameful Embrace of Sean Spicer at the Emmys.’
On ‘The View,’ Joy Behar said that if Spicer and other Trump surrogates apologize to the American people, ‘then I’ll have fun with you, Sean.’
Liberal commentator Keith Olbermann tweeted that the Emmys lost its credibility by lionizing Spicer. Even a Republican strategist, Kevin Madden, warned on CNN that Spicer should be wary of equating notoriety with respect.
To which Spicer, reached on an airplane on Tuesday, offered a suggestion: lighten up.
‘People are reading too much into this,’ he said. While he respects people’s opinions, he said people shouldn’t take the appearance that seriously.
He added to the New York Times: ‘This was an attempt to poke a little fun at myself and add a little bit of levity to the event.’
He also told the Times that he ‘absolutely’ regrets his false inaugural crowd claim.
Melissa McCarthy, who portrayed Spicer to iconic comedic effect on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ is pictured reacting to his appearance at the awards
Pictured are Julie Bowen and Sarah Hyland of ‘Modern Family’ fame reacting to the stunt
Pictured is the reaction of Anna Chlumsky, who co-stars as Amy Brookheimer on Veep, which won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series this year
Spicer didn’t betray any concern that President Trump would be offended by the skit, which some commentators have said acknowledged he wasn’t truthful during his job. He is currently on the paid speaking circuit.
Spicer made the rounds of Hollywood parties after the Emmys and was greeted with many people asking for selfies.
‘I was surprised at how nice people were to me,’ he said, ‘even the people who I know don’t agree with me politically.’
Some fans of Colbert were also bewildered by the appearance.
The ‘Late Show’ host has soared in the ratings this year with comedy that has been sharply critical of Trump and his team.
He should know the dangers of appearing too chummy: late-night competitor Jimmy Fallon still hasn’t recovered from the bad feelings engendered when he tousled Trump’s hair when the then-candidate appeared on the ‘Tonight’ show last year.
After Spicer’s appearance, Colbert got in a rip.
He joked that Robert DeNiro, who appeared as Bernard Madoff in the HBO movie ‘Wizard of Lies,’ had actually been the star of ‘The Sean Spicer Story.’
Emily Nussbaum, television critic at The New Yorker, tweeted after that one: ‘having cake, eating it too, then throwing it up again. There’s a lot going on.’
The web site Vox said it was ‘incredibly disappointing’ to see Colbert joking with Spicer.
‘It went against everything Colbert purports to do on his fiercely pointed ‘Late Show,’ and retroactively sucked the air out of any biting Trump jokes he tried to make in his opening monologue,’ the site wrote.
Colbert blamed the Emmys for Trump’s election as president.
He suggested if Trump had won an award for ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ he might not have run for president.
He showed a clip of a presidential debate where Trump said he should have won an Emmy.
‘Unlike the presidency, Emmys go to the winner of the popular vote,’ he said.
EVERY JOKE AND JAB AT TRUMP AT THE EMMYS
Colbert’s opening monologue took a more benevolent turn when he urged people to keep donations coming to those in need after hurricanes ravaged both Florida and Texas
STEPHEN COLBERT
‘Of course, there’s no way anyone could possibly watch that much TV, other than the president, who seems to have a lot of time for that sort of thing. Hello sir, thank you for joining us! Looking forward to the tweets.
‘We know that the biggest TV star of the last year is Donald Trump. No, we may not like it, but he’s the biggest star. And you know, Alec Baldwin, obviously. You guys are neck and neck. And Alec, you’re up against a lot of neck.
‘However you feel about the president, and you do feel about the president, you can’t deny that every show was influenced by Donald Trump in some way. ‘All the late night shows, obviously, ‘House of Cards,’ the new season of ‘American Horror Story’.
‘We all know that the Emmys mean a lot to Donald Trump because he was nominated multiple times for ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ but he never won. Why didn’t you give him an Emmy? I’ll tell you this — if he had won an Emmy, I bet he wouldn’t have run for president. So this is all your fault. I thought you people love morally compromised antiheroes. You like Walter White.
‘And he never forgave you, and he never will. The president has complained repeatedly that the Emmys are rigged. He even went after the host a few years back, tweeting, ‘That Seth Meyers is hosting the Emmy Awards is a total joke. He is very awkward with almost no talent. Marbles in his mouth!’ Wow, marbles in his mouth, that’s harsh. That’s quite an accusation, do you have a response Seth? (Camera pans to Meyers, with marbles falling out of his mouth).
‘And even during the campaign, he wouldn’t let it go. This actually happened, this exchange actually happened in the debates. (Goes to video showing Clinton mentioning Trump’s Emmy loss in debate)
‘But he didn’t. Because unlike the presidency, Emmys go to the winner of the popular vote. Where do I find the courage to tell that joke in this room? Of course, what really matters to Donald Trump is ratings. He’s got to have the big numbers, and I certainly hope we achieve that tonight.
‘Unfortunately, at this point, we have no way of knowing how big our audience is. I mean, is there anyone who could say how big the audience is? Sean, do you know? (Moment Sean Spicer comes out on podium).
‘The Americans has hotter spies than the Russia inquiry, even treason’s better on TV’
In a skit spoofing HBO hit, Westworld, Colbert was asked by Jeffrey Wright if he’s ‘ever questioned the nature of [his] reality?’ Colbert responds: ‘Every day since November 8th.’
SEAN SPICER
‘This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys. Period. Both in person, and around the world.’ Sean Spicer in a nod to the former WH flack’s now infamous claim President Trump’s crowd was the largest in history.’
COLBERT RESPONDS: ‘Wow, that really soothes my fragile ego. I can understand why you’d want one of these guys around. Melissa McCarthy everyone, give it up! Beautiful.’
‘Imagine if your president wasn’t loved by Nazis’ Veep star Louis-Dreyfus sang during the show’s opening song
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS
‘Imagine if your president wasn’t loved by Nazis’ Louis-Dreyfus sang during the show’s opening song.
‘We did have a whole story line about an impeachment but we abandoned that because we were worried that someone else might get to it first.’
ALEC BALDWIN
‘I suppose I should say, at long last, Mr. President, here is your Emmy,’ Baldwin said while accepting the award for his portrayal of the President on SNL.
‘Orange wig proved to be effective’ birth control, cracked Baldwin during his acceptance speech after he said he and wife Hilaria haven’t had a child in three years.
JANE FONDA, LILY TOMLIN AND DOLLY PARTON
‘Back in 1980 in that movie (9 to 5), we refused to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.
‘And in 2017, we still refuse to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.’
DONALD GLOVER
Glover ‘thanked’ Trump for ‘making black people number one on the most oppressed list’ during one of his Emmys acceptance speeches.
‘He’s the reason I’m probably up here,’ he added.
JOHN LITHGOW
‘First and foremost, I want to thank Winston Churchill. In these crazy times, his life reminds us what courage and leadership in government looks like.’
KUMAIL NANJIANI
‘They (the nominees for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program) also celebrate people who frantically race across international borders, and those who can scale walls really, really quickly. In other words, the president’s worst nightmare.’
SETH MYERS
The late night hoset took on physical comedy as Trump had previously called him ‘marble mouthed’ when he was hosting in 2014 on Twitter. The tweet flashed on screen as cameras cut to Meyers drooling marbles
Baldwin couldn’t resist picking up that baton when he grasped his trophy. ‘I suppose I should say, at long last, Mr. President, here is your Emmy,’ he said.
‘SNL’ had a smash year with its political comedy, led particularly by Baldwin and Melissa McCarthy’s impersonation of Spicer.
It dominated the Emmys, too, with the show winning for variety sketch series and Kate McKinnon, who portrayed Hillary Clinton, taking a supporting actress award.
McKinnon thanked Clinton from the stage for her ‘grace and grit.’
Lorne Michaels, the longtime top producer at ‘Saturday Night Live,’ said he knew it was an important year for the show to get things just right.
‘It was one of the most amazing years we’ve ever had because everything changed every day,’ he said backstage.
In an interview with the New York Times, Spcier also said of his appearance: ‘This was an attempt to poke a little fun at myself and add a little bit of levity to the event’
Donald Glover, best actor winner in a comedy for his role in ‘Atlanta,’ brought up the president his acceptance speech, saying that ‘I want to thank Trump for making black people No. 1 on the most oppressed list.’
A number of nominees wore blue ribbons, distributed by the ACLU in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.
‘They asked us if he would wear these ribbons to bring attention to the DACA children – the 800,000 vulnerable children were waiting for Congress and our administration to give them permanent, safe homes – and not keep them in this limbo that is terrifying all of them and really affecting lives,’ said actor Mandy Patinkin.
Three acting veterans got in the toughest shot at Trump – without mentioning his name. Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, the stars of the movie ‘Nine to Five,’ appeared to present an award.
‘Back in 1980 in that movie, we refused to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot,’ Fonda said.
‘And in 2017,’ Tomlin added, ‘we still refuse to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.’