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The 69th Primetime Emmy Awards had a fun, surprise guest: a former White House press secretary who once claimed that President Donald Trump's inauguration "was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe" and later insisted that Hitler never used chemical weapons. (Photographic evidence blatantly showed otherwise; Hitler gassed millions of Jews).
During the end of his opening monologue Sunday night, Emmys host Stephen Colbert joked that there was no way of knowing how big the award show's audience was. "I mean, is there anyone who could say how big the audience is? Sean, do you know?" Colbert asked, before former White House press secretary Sean Spicer walked out on the stage, wheeling a mock White House podium.
The reactions to Sean Spicer were better than Sean Spicer #Emmys pic.twitter.com/KTBZwVwXCM
— Emily Longeretta (@emilylongeretta) September 18, 2017
"This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period. Both in person and around the world," Spicer said, echoing his own statements on the morning of January 22, when he lied to the American people with a straight face about inaugural crowd sizes, setting an ominous tone for facts coming out of the White House press room.
And then the crowd laughed (a few looked agape), Spicer grinned, and Colbert laid out one last, mild zinger: "Melissa McCarthy, everybody, give it up."
Congratulations, America, we've normalized Sean Spicer.
The reception appeared to be even warmer backstage, where Spicer was "mobbed" in the Emmys lobby, according to Hollywood Reporter reporter Chris Gardner:
What pariah? Sean Spicer getting mobbed in #Emmys lobby. Posing for pics, drinking beer, soaking up all attention after onstage appearance pic.twitter.com/WqJpaRtAvK
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) September 18, 2017
The reception on the internet, however, was not quite as warm. Many called out what they perceived as the normalization of the former White House press secretary:
Ugh NO to Sean Spicer. It's so great that we can embrace someone who used a powerful position to abuse the press and lie to America.
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) September 18, 2017
Do NOT cheer for Sean Spicer. This is how we normalize & excuse unethical, racist, sexist, etc. behavior. #emmys
— Kelly Dittmar (@kdittmar) September 18, 2017
What fun to watch @seanspicer having a sense of humor about all the times he lied to the American public! GOOD SPORT! #emmys
— Paul F. Tompkins (@PFTompkins) September 18, 2017
everyone who had a hand in bringing spicer on stage should be deeply, profoundly embarrassed
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) September 18, 2017
Great work, everybody. This was almost as funny as the travel ban.