Many, if not most, people tuned into May 13’s live coast-to-coast episode of Saturday Night Live in order to see host Melissa McCarthy’s famed Sean Spicer impersonation, which she duly delivered in a big, bold sketch that saw her making out with Alec Baldwin’s President Trump.
Melissa McCarthy took many pies in the face on Saturday Night Live to remind us good comedy is timeless
For McCarthy’s induction into SNL’s 5-time host club, she went all in on physical comedy.
Aja Romano wrote about pop culture, media, and ethics. Before joining Vox in 2016, they were a staff reporter at the Daily Dot. A 2019 fellow of the National Critics Institute, they’re considered an authority on fandom, the internet, and the culture wars.
But the talented comedian, whose hosting gig marked her induction into SNL’s Five-Timers Club, was also out to remind the audience that her comic chops extend far beyond her now-famous impression of the White House press secretary.
McCarthy launched her hosting gig with a charming monologue in which she took a mom from the audience on a backstage tour of Studio 8H in celebration of Mother’s Day, and followed it up with a sketch in which she basically got hit with pies in the face on a loop. The sketch — which centered on a game show called “Just Desserts,” in which contestants compete to win cash and avoid getting randomly hit in the face with pies and cakes — was essentially an excuse to watch McCarthy get hit in the face over and over again with whipped cream pies, confetti, and water.
Lest you think a comedy staple that’s been around for more than a century was a boring or safe choice for McCarthy, think again: The pie sketch was a reminder that physical and sight gags are still a cathartic part of modern comedy — and a necessary break from political comedy, which has become SNL’s stock in trade under the Trump administration.
McCarthy’s pie gag appeared in between two staunchly political skits, one a cold open satirizing the firing of FBI Director James Comey, the other a homoerotic spoof of Spicer’s fraught relationship with the president. Inserting a sketch devoted solely to “pieing” added some much-needed comedic texture to the proceedings — and watching McCarthy take pie after pie to the face became a kind of Zen activity that recalled her first appearance on SNL in 2011, when she famously got up close and personal with a bottle of ranch dressing.
Whether or not you’re a fan of McCarthy’s Spicer impression — or even a fan of McCarthy herself — it’s easy to see the basic appeal of a skit that succeeds on the basis of putting its affable guest star through a little lighthearted humiliation.
And that McCarthy clearly seemed to be enjoying the hell out of it just made it that much better.
