Ms. McCarthy isn’t funny as Mr. Spicer because she’s a woman, she’s funny as Mr. Spicer<br />because she’s made a career of playing aggressive characters who are often angry for no reason.<br />As Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, on last week’s “Saturday Night Live,” Ms. McCarthy guzzled<br />gum, offered an apology “on behalf of the press, to me” and doused a reporter with a Super Soaker.<br />Add to that the fact that President Trump reportedly wants his female staffers to “dress like women,”<br />and Melissa McCarthy dressing like a man to play his press secretary feels like a particularly astute way to needle the White House.<br />Melissa McCarthy’s turn as Sean Spicer is a reminder<br />that cross-gender casting can be a lot more interesting than just putting a man in a dress — and that when you’re trying to mock an administration that seems almost unmockable in its absurdity, it helps to pick the best woman for the job.<br />As Megan, in “Bridesmaids,” she broke new ground as a tough, crude woman with bizarre ideas<br />and no boundaries who nonetheless finds romantic fulfillment, and in subsequent films like “The Heat,” she’s established herself as a powerful physical comedian whose best weapon is her snarl.<br />Why Melissa McCarthy Had to Play Sean Spicer -<br />Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of the president as a squinty-eyed, bloviating man-child has gotten under Mr. Trump’s skin since before the inauguration.<br />See, for instance, the classic Monty Python sketch in which John Cleese<br />and Graham Chapman, both in drag, pay a visit to Jean-Paul Sartre and encounter his wife, Betty Muriel Sartre (Simone de Beauvoir is nowhere to be seen), played by Michael Palin, also in drag.
