‘SNL’ goes after Sean Spicer’s biggest weakness

Editor’s Note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM’s radio’s daily program “The Dean Obeidallah Show” and a columnist for The Daily Beast. Follow him @deanofcomedy. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

Just when you thought Sean Spicer’s awful week couldn’t get worse, along comes “Saturday Night Live.”

Spicer must have been praying that “SNL” was a repeat after he mistakenly declared earlier this week that Adolf Hitler didn’t use gas on his own people and then bizarrely added that Hitler brought the Jews to “Holocaust centers.”

The comments were so preposterous that Spicer did something we rarely see Trump officials do: He publicly apologized – more than once.

But much to Spicer’s likely chagrin, “SNL” was live last night. Worse, there was Melissa McCarthy playing Spicer dressed as the Easter Bunny. Adding insult to injury, the iconic late night show was making history Saturday by airing live nationwide for the first time. (Typically “SNL” airs live at 11:30 p.m. on the East Coast and then is rebroadcasted three hours later for the West Coast at 11:30 p.m. their time.) The nationwide live broadcast translated into even stronger ratings, since the episode aired on the West Coast in prime time.

The sketch was truly McCarthy and “SNL” at their best and served up hilarious political satire at Spicer’s expense. It opened with the graphic, “And now a message from the White House Easter Bunny.” Out walked a person dressed in an Easter bunny outfit who then removed its head to reveal McCarthy as Spicer. (For those unaware, a photo of a much younger Spicer dressed as an Easter bunny while working in George W. Bush’s administration went viral this week.)

McCarthy/Spicer began the sketch by yelling at kids looking for Easter eggs: “Go! Get out of here!” Then she smugly declared to the camera: “You all got your wish this week – Spicey finally made a mistake.”

“SNL” then went after Spicer’s biggest weakness: his verbal gaffes. First, McCarthy referred to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad as “Bazooka Phylicia Ahmad Rashad.”

Then “SNL” went for the jugular, addressing Spicer’s fumbled comment about Hitler sending Jews to “Holocaust centers” with the line: “Yeah, I know they’re not really called ‘Holocaust centers.’” McCarthy then added, “Duh, I know that I clearly meant to say, ‘concentration clubs,’ ok?!”

McCarthy, after “accidentally” invoking Hitler again, made matters worse with the line: “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on Jews.”

Then McCarthy, in a line we might expect to hear from President Trump himself one day, said, “It would be really great if the nitpickers could try to see the big picture and didn’t solely focus on every little slur and lie I say.”

But the comedic highlight of the sketch was when McCarthy explained the genesis of Passover. McCarthy brought out two dolls, one dressed as an Egyptian pharaoh and another as a Jewish man. McCarthy explained that the pharaoh told the Jews, “Hey you guys need to start making pyramids. And then the Jews … just ‘passed over’ – literally.”

At this point McCarthy slowly moved the Jewish doll directly over the head of the Pharaoh doll while saying, “kind of like ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dreidel.’”

The sketch, which could very well became an Easter holiday classic for “SNL,” ended with McCarthy announcing Trump is “probably going to bomb North Korea tonight.” She then climbed into an egg-shaped cart and drove off while screaming, “Eat as much candy as you want. This is probably our last Easter on earth!”

In the past, when “SNL” mocked Spicer, he actually laughed it off, calling it “funny.” But after this week’s performance, it’s unlikely Spicer will feel as generous.

Some say we should have sympathy for Spicer, who clearly is under a great deal of stress working for Trump. But Spicer took that job voluntarily. And worse, Spicer has personally defended Trump’s lies, beginning on the second day of the Trump presidency when Spicer claimed that the crowd at the inauguration was, “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration – period.” It was a statement that earned Spicer four Pinocchios – the most possible – from Washington Post fact checkers.

Spicer, like Trump, deserves every comedic takedown “SNL” can give. And in Spicer’s case, it may only get worse: McCarthy is hosting “SNL” on May 13. Plus, this summer “SNL” will be airing all-new, live “Weekend Update” specials in prime time.

Will we see McCarthy show up as Spicer in those prime-time specials? No one knows yet. But all of us not named Sean Spicer are hoping she does.

The piece has been updated to reflect the latest “SNL” ratings.