Jake Tapper reacts to Kellyanne Conway SNL sketch and more of his best internet moments

It’s not often that a nighttime news anchor becomes a meme, for good reason. But ever since Jake Tapper broke out on the CNN scene, he’s been wowing crowds and taking over Twitter with his take-no-prisoners attitude and the many facial expressions that have ensued. Ahead, Tapper himself reacts to the moments from his career that have fascinated the internet.

“Let me just say, I’m almost 50, so I remember Bill Murray doing Walter Cronkite. So to be on SNL is a huge honor. And as these things go, I thought Beck and the writers were fairly nice — especially compared to how they were portraying Sean Spicer. It was fun to see me chosen to be their kind of reporter-everyman.

“The first time I saw him play me, I remember very well — I was driving home and one of my best friends from college called me and said, ‘They’re making fun of you on Saturday Night Live.’ And I was like, oh no! What is it, are they being mean? I’m sure young people think by the time you’re in your 40s that you don’t care about people being mean to you, but you do. But then I got home and watched and it was great, it wasn’t bad at all.”

—Jake Tapper

“Now, the Kellyanne Conway bit was a little different. I go to be early on Saturday nights because I have the Sunday morning show and I have to get up at 6. So the next morning my wife, who is never up then, was up. She had to tell me about this sketch. She’s like, “You were on Saturday Night Live last night.” I’m like okay, did I do something wrong? And she just goes, ‘you have to see it.’

“So then I watched it, and you know, it was out there. It was an out-there skit. My wife wasn’t a fan; she thought it was sexist. For me, I’m not a comedy critic, I’m honored anytime they include me in these things, but, it was something else.”

—Jake Tapper

“I didn’t notice him at all during the debate! I didn’t realize how much of a meme that had become until maybe a day or two later. I was so spent from the debate and so focused on the reception to the questions. But then I was like, who’s this hot debate guy? I don’t remember anybody of note sitting behind me. But it was just funny.”

—Jake Tapper

“I don’t really pay attention to what’s going to go viral about me, but I read Twitter, so sometimes I’ll see these things. It’s funny because that’s just my face! I don’t make them on purpose, these are just the faces I make in normal life. They get captured sometimes and it’s funny — I get it, I have an expressive face.”

—Jake Tapper

“You know, I’m not very good at lying. I have to restrain myself [with guests] all the time. You know, I want to be respectful, but with, say, Stephen Miller, I really had to restrain myself more than normal. I thought I was calm, but I’ll just say you’re wasting my time. Look, it gets pretty heated — this is a very intense political climate right now, more so than I’ve ever experienced.”

—Jake Tapper

“I did VH1 for six months, and the best part about that job was the documentary we did about Lynyrd Skynrd. You can find it on YouTube, it’s really goofy. But that was interesting, and that time was fun.”

—Jake Tapper