SALT LAKE CITY — Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue for the 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards started out normal. Colbert sang a musical number that tied in both political commentary and jokes about modern television.

Enter Sean Spicer.

Spicer, the former White House press secretary, wheeled out a podium to the stage, dressed in a tuxedo just after Colbert made a reference to the award show’s crowd size — an obvious reference to Spicer’s notorious gaffe of talking about Trump’s inauguration day crowd size.

"This will be the largest audience to witness the Emmys, period — both in person and around the world," Spicer said from the Emmys stage.

Spicer previously appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” earlier this month, where he addressed his statement about the inauguration day crowd size.

Controversy arose for the Trump administration when the president said he had a larger crowd size than President Barack Obama, which, photos showed, was not true.

Spicer shared with Kimmel that he told reporters at the time that the crowd size was "the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration" because the president had asked him to.

“Your job as press secretary is to represent the president’s voice and to make sure that you are articulating what he believes … whether or not you agree or not isn’t your job. Your job is to give him advice, which is what we would do on a variety of issues all the time,” Spicer told Kimmel. “But ultimately, he’s the president. He would say ‘I agree with you’ sometimes, or ‘That’s a good point, incorporate it'; or sometimes he would say, depending on the issue, ‘Look, I know what I believe, and this is what I think the right thing to do is.’ ”

Still, after Spicer appeared at the Emmys, social media fired off, finding the move distasteful.

The treatment of Spicer is another breakdown of political norms. If we just joke about and reward people who lie in government, more will. — Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) September 18, 2017

I'm not ready to laugh "with" Sean Spicer. I think he is an evil, opportunistic liar that hurt our country. — Zach Braff (@zachbraff) September 18, 2017

everyone who had a hand in bringing spicer on stage should be deeply, profoundly embarrassed — Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) September 18, 2017

Hey remember that time when Sean Spicer blatantly lied from behind the White House podium? It's now a punch line...that he is in on! — Matt Viser (@mviser) September 18, 2017

But the counterargument said that Spicer was simply telling a joking, “admitting to his and Trump's dishonesty through comedy,” according to CNN.

Colbert and his producers knew this incident would create “blowback,” CNN reported.

In fact, Colbert, who has long spoken out against Trump, said he isn’t worried about normalizing Spicer, CNN reported.

Rather, a source told CNN, "Donald Trump normalized Spicer.”