I really, really like Larry Wilmore but I don't think he did well last night with his performance at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. Then again, I don't think anyone has done well in that position for a long time with the exception (sort of) of Seth Meyers back in 2011. It's hard though not to remember one of his big laugh lines that year…
Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising because I just assumed he was running as a joke.
The audience howled and the C-Span camera cut to Trump in the audience, immobile and definitely not laughing. One wonders now if he was thinking, "Oh, yeah? Well, wait four years, you pissant!"
Craig Ferguson did okay in 2008 but he largely avoided roast-style jokes and just talked about America from the viewpoint of a guy from Scotland. Other than them…well, talk about a tough room — and a tough act to follow.
I haven't researched when this happened but at some point, the running order changed. Once upon a time, the comedian performed and then the President closed the event. Now, it's the other way around. Obama has always been pretty funny at these things so following him to the podium doesn't help any comic. Also, even if the President doesn't get a load of laughs, he is the President — the most important guy on the premises — in a hall of people who are obsessed with importance.
Also, political comedy has changed. Bob Hope did jokes about Gerald Ford's golf game and Nancy Reagan replacing the White House china and it was all in fun because Bob never made anyone in the room uncomfortable. As often as not, he had a golf game the next morning with Ford or would be eating the next night off Nancy's new china.
Today — and especially since Stephen Colbert did the dinner in 2006, the entertainer is expected to hold some feet to the fire and he also took some real shots at the incompetence of the press. In Hope's era, the members of the audience sat there praying to be mentioned in his monologue. Now, they sit there hoping they won't be, which is not conducive to laughter. Wilmore did better in his last few remarks because by then, he was shifting from one-liners to sincerity and the folks there were untensing, figuring they no longer had to worry about a joke that insulted them or their professions.
But then there's something about these events that always strikes me as super-phony. I don't believe the President — any President — when he makes the obligatory remarks thanking the press for their indispensable role in the political process and keeping politicians honest, etc. I think deep down, he'd really like to tell them all the stuff they got wrong or missed completely and then list ways in which he thinks they have kept the American public misinformed. For his last one of these, it would have been great if Obama had felt he could have done a little of that but I can sure understand why he didn't.