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.
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.
Melissa McCarthy is our nation's greatest physical comedian. #SNL pic.twitter.com/6D5mtEXkCj
— Devan Coggan (@devancoggan) May 14, 2017
