Most of the comedy’s best talents are in Los Angeles this weekend at the first Netflix Is A Joke festival, but the nation’s best jokes, literally and figuratively, were at a White House reporters’ dinner in Washington on Saturday.
Adhering to a winning strategy of self-humiliation, President Joe Biden began with “special thanks to 42% of you who actually applauded,” in a clear comment on his low poll numbers. The president then addressed his immediate media audience as “the only group of Americans with a lower approval rating than me.”
Concluding his speech with praise for “good journalist, good satire”, Biden will be followed by Trevor Noah. The Daily Show host has the somewhat thankless job of baking POTUS in front of the man himself, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, as well as several of his bosses, colleagues and friends at Paramount Global and cabinet members.
Recalling how fascinated he was when Noah called Biden “America’s new father” after the 2020 election, the nearly 80-year-old POTUS added with perhaps his best performance of the evening: “I’m flattered when someone calls me the new whatever. ”
Tonight, in his first WHCD since receiving his top job, and the first POTUS to be on shindig since Barack Obama’s swan song dropping the microphone in 2016, Biden had to go carefully in his speeches. Working with his staff and some outside talent on his speech, the crowd, which pleased the president, had to make sure to get some belly laughter, while not feeling insensitive to the economic woes many Americans are experiencing and the carnage resulting from the ongoing invasion. Russia in Ukraine.
In that spirit, and fearing Covid’s risks of collecting the WHCD, Biden made a direct hit in the media, driving him to their own hypocrisy. “Everyone had to prove that they were fully vaccinated and bragged,” POTUS said. “So if you’re at home watching this and wondering how to do it, just contact your favorite Fox News reporter, they’re all here, vaccinated and bragging, everyone.”
This last line caused Biden his biggest laughter and applause for the evening.
“Fox News, I’m really sorry that your candidate lost the last election,” the president told the cable newspaper, owned by Rupert Murdoch. “To make up for it, I’m happy to give you my Chief of Staff so he can tell Sean Hannity what to say every day,” Biden said of the already public relationship between Mark Meadows and the FNC. the host.
This line did not go well.
The sequel to former Trump aide Mick Mulvani, which surprised Biden to be hired by CBS when he thought the other former chief of staff “will end up at Masked Singer with Rudy,” went much better.
After making his obligatory punches in the media, Biden made several passages to the GOP and its extreme positions. “Today’s Republicans say they’re tearing down Mickey Mouse’s house,” he exclaimed in the latest round of the ever-popular culture wars. “They’re going to storm Cinderella’s castle soon, you can be sure.”
“Republicans seem to support one man, a man named Brandon,” Biden said, grinning, referring to the coded insult against him that turned into a MAGA chant. “He has a good year, I am somewhat happy for him.
Featured live on C-Span, CNN and others on the small screen and online, the annual DC lovefest is certainly more stellar tonight than in recent years. On the one hand, this is the first WHCD live in two years due to the pandemic and the District is partying harder than Coachella this weekend. Second, the American president is actually under the roof for the first time in six years, and you can’t beat him for pure nuclear codes that weld stellar power.
A regular DC player since 1973, Biden has been featured in a number of past WHCDs over the decades. His presence was most notable in 2014, when the then Veep pedaled the metal with the fictional Veep Selina Meyers (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in a short video that left the ballroom in legitimate stitches.
Biden was briefly on video tonight in a weak sketch led by James Cordon, the now-leaving host of the Late Late Show, looking for a new gig as a White House spokesman.
POTUS noted the departure of Corden in 2023 and said that “if all goes well, I have a real chance to replace it.” Biden’s tuxedo went a little deeper into the Cordon mine, saying that “a great performer comes out on top after eight years of work, it sounds almost right.”
Noting that we had a “terrible plague followed by two years of Covid”, Biden acted a little harsher than expected at one point with the swing of the 45th POTUS, when he noted what a “coup” it would be to have the other person present
Before Biden and Noah, there was a pre-recorded comedy from Tinseltown on Saturday with Billy Eichner, who appeared behind the podium with the presidential stamp on it to mock Entertainment reporters. Raising the Paramount flag, CBS Morning co-host Gail King took to the ballroom stage to shout at one of her bosses and present the first Dunnigan-Payne career award for the event. The award is named after the first two African-American women who were members of the White House press office – as a video posted in the room with details.
King was in shape as usual, but even as a fictional potential POTUS, Eichner was a step ahead of the last man.
A long-hospitable place to land on the Daily Show alumni, past and present, the WHCD darkened during the reign of the former Celebrity Apprentice host’s mistake, in part because Trump was too devoid of humor and thin skin to attend. This did not help that the press and the then president were in a constant embrace, to put it mildly, because of his policies and paranoia.
As has been the case for decades, the entire debauchery takes place in the Hilton Ballroom with 2,500 people, filled with the upper crust of American pop culture and media. While Washington Post owner and second-richest man Jeff Bezos is not there, this year’s list of celebrities includes such luminaries as former Trump surrogate Kim Kardashian and SNL’s Peter Davidson, who was in Los Angeles last night for a Netflix comedy. fest
More likely, CNN’s Jack Tapper, CAA’s Brian Lourdes, a former White House employee and current MSNBC contributor Simone Sanders, none of whom had the level of security that brought Kardashian to her table. George Cheeks, Showtime boss David Nevins, media mogul Brian Allen, Billions Corey Chair, Drew Barrymore, future 2024 Gov. Gov. Ron DeSantis, short-lived CA Gov. Caitlin Jenner Shell from NBCU, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, UTA’s Jay Sures (who is a representative of a number of cable news anchors), Katie Loez from the just-canceled DC Legends of Tomorrow and Steve Ducy and Peter Ducy from Fox News they were also there, among very tall roller skates.
Of course, there were fears that President Biden would refuse to appear and make remarks remotely. Of course, the ghost of the 80’s heavyweight from Beltway, who tested positive for Covid-19 after dinner at Gridiron earlier this month, hung over the appearance of the 79-year-old WHCD commander-in-chief tonight. Adding to that, Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive earlier this week, and White House Science Adviser Dr. Anthony Faci decided not to attend this year due to concerns about another DC superspray and it is clear that no one would resigned himself to Biden’s absence.
But that didn’t turn out to be necessary, did it?
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