I think I skipped class the week of journalism school where they talked about how unapologetically promoting fascism was the most reliable springboard to a media career, but here we are, with the news that the first press secretary of the Trump administration will waltzing across your TV Monday nights this fall. News that broke the same day as the announcement that Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be a commentator on Fox News.
The Sanders hiring is so predictable it’s not worth wasting oxygen over. The Spicer casting, however, deserves every last breath in your lungs as you scream into the void.
Listen, it’s not the first time that DWTS has attempted to appeal to conservative viewers by dressing up right-wing figure heads in polyester and making them do the paso doble to a P!nk song. Past seasons have included Duck Dynasty cast members, Geraldo Rivera, Tucker Carlson, Bristol Palin, and, for the love of God, Rick Perry, who has since cha-cha’d his way to the nuclear codes.
But there is something particularly vile about this Spicer casting, just as it was when he was peddling his book, just as it was when he was shopping around a talk show, just as it was when he was a comedy prop in Stephen Colbert’s Emmys bit.
Sean Spicer doesn’t get to be a folk hero. He doesn’t get to be the fun-loving, humanizing catalyst that bridges a cultural divide. It’s inane to even type out, yet somehow meaningful: He doesn’t get to be on Dancing With the Stars.
Spicer lied directly to the American people on behalf of the government, strong-armed the press, cast doubt on the 2016 vote total, and defended Hitler. Now he just wants to have some fun and do a jive alongside Dawson Leary, the Bachelorette, and the worst of the Queer Eyes.
Why Sean Spicer’s ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Casting Really Is That Pathetic
