Best zingers by Obama and Larry Wilmore at WH Correspondents’ Dinner

President Obama riffed on Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and of course Donald Trump in his final appearance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. 

|
Yuri Gripas/Reuters
US President Barack Obama talks to Jeff Mason of Thomson Reuters at the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner in Washington, U.S., April 30, 2016.

In his final appearance at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, now it can be said: President Obama is always funnier than the paid comedian.

Larry Wilmore, host of Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show,” kind of bombed, in fact. Let’s just say, he told the “Ted Cruz is really the Zodiac Killer” joke about seven times too many. And it was probably a good thing that his dropping of the N-word came in the sign-off, because the audience might not have stood for more.

But let’s focus on the positive: the best jokes. Mr. Obama had plenty, and in this wild election year, there was a ton of material for his speech-writers. Even Hillary Clinton wasn’t spared, in a way that might not make her too happy. He praised her smarts and experience, then continued:

“You’ve got to admit it, though, Hillary trying to appeal to young voters is a little bit like your relative that just signed up for Facebook,” Obama said.

“Dear America, did you get my poke?” he mocked. “Is it appearing on your wall? I’m not sure I’m using this right. Love, Aunt Hillary.”

Here are some other good ones by Obama:

On “C.P.T”: The president started off with a bang, apologizing for being late (which he wasn’t).  “I was running on C.P.T., which stands for ‘jokes that white people should not make,’” he said.

It was a jab at New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, who recently quipped at another political dinner that he had waited to endorse Mrs. Clinton because he was on “C.P. Time” – a racially demeaning term that stands for “Colored People Time.”

On Bernie Sanders, who was in the audience: "Bernie, you look like a million bucks,” Obama said. “Or, to put it in terms you understand, you look like 37,000 donations of $27 each."

On being “snubbed” by foreign leaders because he’s a lame duck: “Last week, Prince George showed up to our meeting in his bathrobe.” (Prince George is two years old.)

On Joe Biden (and Dick Cheney): “I love Joe Biden, I really do.  And I want to thank him for his friendship, for his counsel, for always giving it to me straight, for not shooting anybody in the face.”

Obama was referring to the time, in 2006, when then-Vice President Cheney accidentally shot a hunting partner in the face with a pellet gun.

On Senator Cruz:  “Ted had a tough week.  He went to Indiana – Hoosier country – stood on a basketball court, and called the hoop a “basketball ring. What else is in his lexicon? Baseball sticks? Football hats? But sure, I’m the foreign one.”

On himself: “This is my eighth and final appearance and I am excited. If this material works well, I’m going to use it at Goldman Sachs next year [and] earn me some serious Tubmans.”

And of course, Donald Trump: Obama said he was hurt and surprised that Mr. Trump didn’t come to this year’s dinner.

“You've got a room full of reporters, celebrities, cameras, and he says no?” Obama said. “Is this dinner too tacky for The Donald?  What could he possibly be doing instead? Is he at home, eating a Trump Steak, tweeting out insults to Angela Merkel?”

Mr. Wilmore followed Obama, admitting it’s the toughest assignment in comedy. Wilmore, who is also African American, went for a lot of racial humor, always risky but perhaps more so now in these racially charged times.

Wilmore started his remarks in that vein: “Well, welcome to ‘Negro Night’ here at the Washington Hilton, or as Fox News will report, ‘Two thugs disrupt elegant dinner in D.C.,’” Wilmore said. “That’s how they do us, right?”

The folks from Fox News seated next to the Monitor’s table were not amused.

When Wilmore addressed Obama directly, he doubled down on the racial humor:  “Your hair is so white, it tried to punch me at a Trump rally,” he said.

“President’s hair is so white it keeps saying ‘all lives matter.’ Alright, fine. Fine, I get it. I get it.”

“No, but man, you came in here looking like Denzel. Now you going out looking like Grady from ‘Sanford and Son.’”

Wilmore also took off after the superannuated Senator Sanders:  “I’m surprised, you never come to these things. He usually goes to the White House correspondents’ early-bird dinner.”

And he recalled the White House Correspondents’ Dinner of 2011, which, in retrospect, may be Obama’s most extraordinary performance of all.

“I gotta be careful picking on you, though, Mr. President,” Wilmore said. “Couple years ago during this dinner, you were like killing Osama bin Laden. Remember that?”

We do remember that, and recall that the president’s cool and impeccable comedic timing betrayed nothing of what was happening in another part of the world. Trump was also at that dinner – an occasion that Obama used to rib him mercilessly about his TV show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” his birth certificate conspiracy, and – yes – about his presidential ambitions.

A year from now, a new president will probably be addressing the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. And who knows, maybe Trump will have the last laugh.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Best zingers by Obama and Larry Wilmore at WH Correspondents’ Dinner
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/0501/Best-zingers-by-Obama-and-Larry-Wilmore-at-WH-Correspondents-Dinner
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe