The Emmys Tried Their Best to Normalize Sean Spicer

Hey, remember that time we published a news story about how TV’s appetite for dumb bullshit was so vast, so never-ending, so all-encompassing that Sean Spicer was getting inundated with possible TV deals? Well, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

At the 69th Annual Primetime Emmys last night, host Stephen Colbert made waves when he wondered how big his crowd was at the theater that night, and then out slunk Sean, shouting nonsense similar to what he shouted when he worked for Donald Trump. Spicer clearly enjoyed being allowed to enter the spotlight for some positive attention, and the crowd was oh-so-ready to give it to him, as long as he seemed to make the least bit of fun of Trump.

For those of you who, like the Emmys, evidently don’t remember, Sean Spicer spent half of the past year as Donald Trump’s press secretary. He was, at best, complicit in Trump’s horrible garbage, and at worst, saying things like Adolf Hitler “didn’t sink to using chemical weapons.”

Spicer’s appearance at the Emmys, a joke which could have easily been accomplished with Melissa McCarthy reprising her SNL impersonation of him instead, follows his interview with Jimmy Kimmel in an apparent attempt by all of mainstream television to rehabilitate Spicer’s image. It shows that these celebrities don’t take what Spicer did seriously—they see him as just a regular guy who happened to get used by Trump, as opposed to seeing him for what he is: a man who was totally fine with the racist, fascist, sexist rhetoric that Trump spewed. Spicer only left the administration because he didn’t like Anthony Scaramucci—it wasn’t an ideological difference or crisis of conscience that prompted his resignation.

This is all, however, clearly irrelevant to the Emmys’ producers, who had what they thought was just a great idea for a fun little gag. Because that’s all this is to them. Fun.