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 By Phil Helsel 
 
 More fake news about the midterm blues. "Saturday Night Live" took to the airwaves to poke fun at conspiracy theories about voter fraud following the midterms, using a parody of conservative commentator Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show. 
 
 The sketch featured Kate McKinnon as Ingraham teasing an upcoming segment about how "celebrities in California are whining about some tiny wildfires, while our heroic president is under constant attack — from rain." 
 
 Cecily Strong played firebrand Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro warning about what McKinnon’s Ingraham called "rampant voter fraud that allowed Democrats to literally steal the election." 
 
 "Some have claimed that suburban women revolted against the Republican Party — but doesn’t it feel more true that all Hispanics voted twice?" McKinnon’s Ingraham said. "You can’t dismiss that idea simply because it isn’t true and sounds insane." 
 
 More "feel facts" designed to pander to the stereotypical Fox News crowd followed, like "Santa is Jesus's dad," "blackface is a compliment" and "If the Earth is so warm, then why are my feet cold?" 
 
 Strong’s Pirro offered up examples that included one person being able to impersonate many — holding up Eddie Murphy’s "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" — and a "huge increase in what people call stacking, where multiple children will stack on top of each other, under a trench coat and then vote as an adult." (The segment later posted online by the show dropped the Murphy reference.) 
 
 The sketch also lampooned parody advertisers on the faux-Fox show, including a fashion catheter company, the manufacturer of baptism kits for dogs and a brand of "whites only" eggs — "it's just egg whites, and it’s just for us." A parody of a derided real-life "vape god" segment also made an appearance. 
 
 "SNL" was hosted by Steve Carell, the boss from the hit show "The Office," who returned to host for the third time. 
 
 He started his monologue by trying to talk about the movies he’s been in since his TV role — only to be interrupted by former cast members Ed Helms, Jenna Fischer and Ellie Kemper, who pleaded with Carell to accept a reboot of the program. 
 
 "Do you remember the last words that Pam secretly whispered to Michael as she left for Denver?" Fischer, who played Pam in the series, asked. 
 
 When Carell responded he did not, Fischer replied: "She said: ‘Steve, don’t be a d--k, do the reboot.” 
 
 The crowd cheered the suggestion, and Carell brought the actors on stage. But fans who expected a new series were left wanting: He instead said "I am proud to announce, officially, that ... we have a great show tonight!” (The band did play the theme song from the show). 
 
 Carell hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 2005 and 2008. The musical guest Saturday was Ella Mai. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Mark Hanrahan 
 
 White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has become the latest member of President Donald Trump's administration to get the "Saturday Night Live" treatment, courtesy of actor and comedian Melissa McCarthy. 
 
 In a surprise cameo, McCarthy mimicked Spicer's famously combative first appearance with the White House press corps, at which he angrily took issue with reports about the size of the crowd at Trump's inauguration. 
 
 "I'd like to begin today by apologizing on behalf of you to me," McCarthy yells at reporters. 
 
 "And that apology is not accepted!" 
 
 McCarty, a four-time "SNL" host, screamed, poured an entire container of gum down her throat and literally used her lectern as a bully pulpit, pushing troublesome reporters back into their seats during the sketch. 
 
 Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer on 'Saturday Night Live' 
 
 McCarthy has been nominated for Emmy awards for each of her appearances hosting the show. 
 
 The sketch also took aim at Spicer and the administration's spats with individual media outlets, featuring a diaper-clad CNN journalist caged in the corner of the press room. 
 
 In a possible case of life imitating art, Spicer was engaged in a Twitter spat on the evening the show was broadcast with a Washington Post reporter over a story he described as "false." 
 
 McCarthy is the latest in a string of high-profile performers to make fun of prominent politicians on the show. Alec Baldwin has made frequent guest appearances as Trump, and Larry David won over viewers with his comedic portrayal of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, a Democratic presidential candidate 
 
 Her appearance was not the only time the show took aim at team Trump this week. Baldwin returned as the president for this week's cold open sketch, featuring an Oval Office meeting with Steve Bannon, played by a cast member in a full Grim Reaper costume. 
 
 Host Kristen Stewart also took a jab at Trump, mocking his habit of tweeting about her former relationship with her "Twilight" co-star Robert Pattinson. 
 
 While Spicer has yet to comment on his portrayal on the show, Trump has made his feelings clear about Baldwin's impersonation — he's not a fan. ||||| Fox News host Laura Ingraham is taking vacation time as advertisers flee her show, "The Ingraham Angle," over a feud with a high school student who advocates for gun control. 
 
 Ingraham on her show Friday night described the vacation as a pre-planned break with her children for the Easter holiday. 
 
 “A blessed Good Friday and Passover to all of you; I’ll be off next week for Easter break with my kids,” she said. "Fear not. We've got a great lineup of guest hosts to fill in for me." 
 
 Ingraham, who hosts one of Fox News’s highest-rated talk shows, leaves in the midst of controversy and boycotts. 
 
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 More than a dozen companies have stopped advertising on Ingraham's show in the days since the Fox News host mocked Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg for being rejected from colleges. 
 
 Hogg is both a survivor of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting that took place in February and a national gun control advocate. He helped organize the "March for Our Lives" rally in Washington, D.C., which brought hundreds of thousands to the Capitol to pressure Congress to change laws in favor of tighter restrictions on guns. 
 
 Ingraham apologized on Thursday “for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland.” She also praised Hogg’s “4.2 GPA,” which she had previously mocked. 
 
 She noted she was the first to feature Hogg on the air after the shooting that left 17 dead, praising him at the time for his “poise” and for speaking so well and informatively. She also invited Hogg back on the program to have "a productive discussion." 
 
 Hogg rejected her apology, however, calling it “an effort just to save your advertisers.” He had called for his Twitter followers to contact her top advertisers. He went on to accelerate the boycott effort by listing 100 advertisers for the show by retweeting a list provided by Media Matters. 
 
 Since Wednesday night, at least 14 advertisers have stopped advertising on the program, including Liberty Mutual, Office Depot, Jenny Craig, Atlantis Paradise Island, Stitch Fix, Johnson & Johnson, Hulu, Nestle, Expedia, Wayfair, Trip Advisor, Ruby Tuesday, Nutrish, and Global investment group Principal. 
 
 The only blue-chip company to advertise on Ingraham’s show Friday night was IBM, according to Variety. 
 
 In response to Ingraham's announced vacation, Hogg tweeted: "Have some healthy reflections this Holy Week." 
 
 Have some healthy reflections this Holy Week. https://t.co/bjSLmj3gyH — David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 31, 2018 
 
 "The Ingraham Angle," which launched five months ago, finished fourth in the cable news ratings race in total viewers in February, averaging more than 2.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. 
 
 Only "Hannity,” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox and "The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC delivered more viewers last month. 
 
 The Hill has reached out to Fox News for comment. 
 
 — Updated 7:17 a.m. ||||| Laura Ingraham is taking a vacation next week. Now the question is whether a controversy swirling around the host will go on hiatus as well. 
 
 The popular Fox News Channel host — her “Ingraham Angle” was the fourth most-watched cable-news program in February — told viewers Friday night she would not appear on air next week as she took what she described as a pre-planned break around the Easter holiday with her children. Substitute hosts are expected to fill in for her on the program. 
 
 She leaves in the midst of heightened scrutiny. Ingraham set off an imbroglio Wednesday with a Twitter post mocking Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg, one of the students who has spoken out about gun control prominently since a Feb. 14th shooting incident at the Parkland, Fla. school left 17 people dead. Her tweet linked to a report noting Hogg had been rejected from four California colleges, and also said Hogg “whines about” the rejections. In response, Hogg posted on social media a list of recent advertisers in her program culled from Media Matters, a left-leaning watchdog group, and urged followers to pressure them to remove their commercials from Ingraham’s show. Nestle, Johnson & Johnson, TripAdvisor, Nutrish, Expedia and Hulu — a video-streaming company partly owned by Fox News parent 21st Century Fox — are among the advertisers who have said they would no longer advertise in her program. 
 
 Ingraham apologized Thursday via Twitter, noting that she was sorry “for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland.” She invited Hogg to appear on her program, but he said he would not accept her apology. 
 
 Many advertisers appeared to keep their distance from the program on Friday. The only blue-chip advertiser to appear over the course of the hour-long broadcast was IBM. A spokesman for the company said Saturday that the company was no longer advertising on Ingraham’s program. 
 
 Otherwise, many of Friday’s sponsors were direct-response advertisers like MyPillow.com, or lesser-known entities such as the American Petroleum Institute, Interstate Batteries and KT Tape. Fox News also filled commercial breaks with promos for hosts like Bret Baier, or the mid-morning team of Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith. 
 
 Her Friday announcement drew eerie parallels to another Fox News host who came under the microscope. Last April, Bill O’Reilly announced a pre-planned vacation just before Easter weekend in the midst of an even greater controversy. Advertisers were moving commercials elsewhere on the network after a New York Times report detailed accusations of sexual harassment levied against the host who was at the time the linchpin of the Fox News primetime lineup. He never returned to the air, fired eight days later in a letter signed by the three members of the Murdoch family most active in running Fox News’ parent company, 21st Century Fox: Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch. 
 
 There is no indication at this point that Fox News executives want Ingraham to remain off air. Her program has fit seamlessly into a primetime lineup that was re-calibrated last fall, and is now flanked with programming anchored by two other female hosts, Martha MacCallum and Shannon Bream. Ingraham, a longtime contributor to the network, built up her own audience base with her long-running radio program. 
 
 Fox News is working with advertisers, says a person familiar with the network’s ad sales strategy, accommodating sponsors who wish to move commercials elsewhere, but also maintaining a long-term view about the program and its connection with Madison Avenue. In February, “The Ingraham Angle” drew an average of more than 2.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Only Fox News’ “Hannity” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” attracted more viewers that month. With that size of an audience and following — Ingraham is also a longtime radio host — advertisers could find her program difficult to ignore in the future. 
 
 Ingraham has not addressed the social-media controversy on air, and avoided the topic on Friday night’s program. The broadcast was billed as a “special,” and Ingraham devoted the episode to segments that examined “culture wars in the age of Trump.” Her return to the Fox News lineup will determine if she’s caught in one of her own. 
 
 [Updated, 5:50 PM PT, 3/31]
– Saturday Night Live again deployed Kate McKinnon as Laura Ingraham to lampoon Fox News in its Cold Open, reports NBC News, lamenting how "celebrities in California are whining about some tiny wildfires, while our heroic president is under constant attack—from rain." Steve Carell stopped by to host his third time, in what the AV Club calls "a congested wheeze of an episode, packed with sketch after sketch of unimaginative premises, indifferently executed." Slate, however, likes a sketch in which Carell broadcasts from the space station as corpses float by a window in the background. And Mashable highlights a sketch of Carell as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, which is "just an extended string of Trump burns, targeting his hair, his Twitter addiction, his bullying behavior, and his repeated failures as a businessman." Highlights in the gallery.