On one level, I suppose, you could say that being cast on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” is punishment enough. It is not generally a sign of a thriving career. You don’t have to be a scandal subject or a public joke or an “Oh yeah, it’s that guy” to get cast on the show, but it doesn’t hurt.

All of which may be reason to ignore the fact that “Dancing” has cast the former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, heretofore best known for tap-dancing to his boss’s tune and waltzing past the photographic evidence to insist that President Trump’s inauguration crowd was the largest of all time, period.

Certainly I’m giving the show precisely what it wanted when it cast Spicer, which is publicity. And I’m probably giving Spicer what he wants, which is attention as he takes one more step toward an imagined life in which he’s no longer a buffoon, where people shrug off his mendacity and say: “Hey, what was he supposed to do? Everybody’s gotta keep the boss happy, right?”

Besides which, it isn’t cool to get mad about things like this. It’s so strident. It’s so earnest. If you high-mindedly wrestle with a goofy sideshow like “Dancing With the Stars,” you just get glitter all over you, and the show gets ratings.