The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner: so funny I forgot to laugh
The brouhaha over the jokes (that should be the “jokes”) at the White House correspondents’ dinner is basically a big yawn.
The most interesting part of it is that even some people on the Democratic side of things seem to have been a bit put off by the mean-spirited quality of the “humor” on display that night. Or maybe they were merely put off by an approach that seems to have targeted Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ looks. Or maybe they just felt the proceedings exposed too much of their own venom, contradicting their own version of themselves as objective purveyors of truth, and made it seem as though the abominable Donald Trump showed great good judgment in boycotting them.
I bet certain other attendees wish they hadn’t been there, too
But my takeaway is: why would anyone be surprised at this? This sort of freely-expressed bile has long ago become mainstream. And comedians are for the most part no longer the least bit funny.
I don’t think that latter observation is solely because I’ve become an old curmudgeon myself, although I suppose I have. But I’ve noticed that being edgy, offensive, and obscene has become a substitute for humor these days.
I used to actually go to comedy clubs now and then. The last time I did was a long time ago, and the transition had already occurred. I didn’t laugh once, and I think most of the people who did were either very drunk or very stoned.
This year, I’m surprised that the White House Correspondents didn’t invite the enormously unfunny Kathy Griffin to be the keynote comedy act and do a reprise of her enormously unfunny severed head routine.
“Journalists”–they’re fancy now, not mere “reporters” any more–pretense of even handedness and objective reporting is wearing pretty thin right about now.
Why in the hell would you show up to be vilified and be expected to “be a good sport,” and to wear a smile, while they dumped a bucket of crap all over you and yours.
P.S.–Wolf was counting on Sanders civility, and that she wouldn’t just get a knuckle sandwich, delivered by Sanders, partway through Wolf’s monologue.
It’s really too bad that they’ve done away with dueling.
I think that a lot of today’s supposed “comedians” and others would watch their mouths a lot more closely, if they knew that the objects of their ridicule might demand that they meet them one morning at dawn–pistol, knife, sword, or baseball bat in hand–for a little “satisfaction.”
Of course back then, in the “bad old days,” if you didn’t show up, you were marked as a coward.
But that was in the “olden days” when a man’s “reputation” was pretty much everything and, in a frontier society, if people wouldn’t deal with you–wouldn’t sell you or lend you the things you needed to survive–food, some money, clothing, shelter, a horse, medicine, a weapon, or ammunition–your chances of survival went down considerably.
WHCA members are preening, narcissistic, leftist liars and still they fail to understand why millions consider them agenda driven propagandists and how they got Trump. They are definitely not as smart as they think they are.
“So funnyI forgot to laugh.”
Didn’t the incomparable Gilda Radner/Lisa Lubner trademark that line? She should have!
Isn’t this effectively how the WHCA dinner has always been? This seems right about par for the course with how it went with Colbert back in 2006 as well.
Dad – not always. The dinners have always been roasts, but the “jokes” have gotten meaner over the years; I don’t watch so I don’t know when, but I suspect someone has written an article somewhere. I do think they started going downhill around the time of Bush 43, though.
The back-and-forth is too voluminous to quote, but NYT is defending Wolf as, um, telling truth to power or something.
Denial is strong on the Left, especially in the MSM.
“Roasts” were when your friends made fun of you, and you laughed with them.
Apparently, up until now, WHCA was the body that decided who would be in the White House press corps. I think this would be an opportune time for President Trump to announce that he will no longer accept their credentials. No one worth hearing would criticize the decision, given that all he needs to do is play the video of what the WHCA presented as “entertainment.”
It’s the mean-spiritedness that grates so. Didn’t Imus get in trouble one year for insulting Clinton or Bush?
If it was good natured ribbing and jibes then it would all be fun and likely to create comity among the combatants. But it’s not, they are insulting and attempting to hurt people, all for a cheap, and probably embarrassed, laugh.
Such a miserable, insecure bunch they are.
Kind of a mixed review of Wolf : neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm and therefore dispensable, but the conclusion is apt.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-04-30/white-house-correspondents-dinner-the-joke-s-on-washington
“In the meantime, it’s worth identifying the real problem with the Correspondents’ Association dinner: Journalists enter perilous territory when they take too much pleasure in getting dressed up and going out with the people they write about. My colleague, Margaret Talev, who organized the evening, has started a discussion of how it might be reformed. But I’m not sure there’s a fix to be found.
The event is firmly part of a certain nostalgic Washington tradition, one that’s rooted in the idea that there’s a shared faith in the fundamental value of fact-based journalism. But there isn’t. And that’s a fact that can’t be obscured by the kind of bland humor for which Wolf’s critics seem to pine.
So let’s just stop trying.”
“The most interesting part of it is that even some people on the Democratic side of things seem to have been a bit put off by the mean-spirited quality of the “humor” on display that night.”
Maybe; but more likely some on the Democrat side have come to realize that middle America isn’t believing the muck being thrown at Trump.
In fact, I’d say some of those Democrats are coming to realize that the more they bash Trump the less THEY are liked. And the more Trump is bashed, the more he just might win a second term.
Oh, and yea, they could have invited Kathy Griffin to do her beheading routine again as she has since “unapologized.”
The easiest way to control journalists is not to hammer their knees in. It is to give the scoop to their competitors.
They hate that. They really do. Also give them “scoops” that are essentially disinformation, then wait for it to fall out of the cake.
I noticed a long time ago that the leftists like to insult and call people they disagree with names. If you disagree with them it’s not just a difference of opinion, they take it personally. They really didn’t show any class. They were crass, crude, vulgar and had no manners.
Ymar Sakar Says:
April 30th, 2018 at 8:44 pm
The easiest way to control journalists is not to hammer their knees in. It is to give the scoop to their competitors.
They hate that. They really do. Also give them “scoops” that are essentially disinformation, then wait for it to fall out of the cake.
* * *
😉
While the 2006 roast did have Steve Colbert, it also had Steve Bridges – President George W. Bush at the White House Correspondent Dinner 2006.
Classic: “Only thing missing is Hillary Clinton, rolling her eyes.”
Re roasting- it is apparent that Steve Bridges, the comedian playing Bush, likes him.
Dubya could laugh at himself. Obama couldn’t.
Setting aside the lamentable fact that most “comedy” ceased to be funny ohh, three or so decades ago …
This performnce resembles what used to be called a roast. A major difference is that in a roast, people *like* the roastee, s/he is one of them, and they gently poke fun at his/her foibles, and everyone, including the roastee, laughs — the roastee laughing at him/herself.
This performance featured a “roaster” whose hatred for the roastees is palpable and visceral. The audience’s hatred for the roastees is palpable and visceral. The targets of the performance are/were not laughing at anyone — not at the “jokes” (so-called), and not at themselves.
This is a certain in-crowd spewing hatred at a common enemy, with the audience, sharing that common enemy, sharing in what was supposed to pass for mirth. It is entertainment much like the cool kids in junior high school surrounding the uncool nerd and shoving him to and fro among the cool kids in the circle. That our moral superiors/betters find this entertaining is cause for very serious concern. They are vicious sadists, and they exercise a lot of power.
Yes, some of ’em said it went too far, that it was in bad taste; but how many of those said so only because of how demented it all looked?
After the WHCD, I watched a whole bunch of people on CNN express outrage. Some skinny Trump-supporter named Paris was breathlessly indignant. But so where some liberals.
Then, as I flipped thru the channels, I stumbled upon Trump’s Comedy Central Roast. Here’s a taste of what I saw:
1. Comedian Jeff Ross jokes about Trump wanting to have sex with his own daughter. The camera pans to Ivanka. She is laughing.
2. Gilbert Gottfried all but calls Melania Trump an” Easter-European whore”. She is later shown smiling as the host calls her a good-sport.
I was waiting for Trump to finally walk-the-walk and punch one of these jokesters in the face. Any man would’ve done it. And nobody except the biggest anal tight-wad would’ve blamed him. Sex with your own daughter? Fists would fly in my world.
But not in Trump’s. He sat there laughing like a man who enjoys being drenched in pee. What a weirdo.
So, they’re saying, (to paraphrase Cathy Newman,) insane, disgusting vitriolic, vindictive hatred with a side of leftist ideology is the alternative to Trump, um, eep… backs away.
Manju
I was waiting for Trump to finally walk-the-walk and punch one of these jokesters in the face. Any man would’ve done it….But not in Trump’s. He sat there laughing like a man who enjoys being drenched in pee. What a weirdo.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Not a bad response, Gringo.
Make America Gracious Again!!
Not:
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/29/opinions/after-whcd-wolf-has-brighter-future-than-trump-obeidallah-opinion/index.html
We are living in truly insane times.
Maybe people will start to wake up.
Some people, at least.
Leftists are the skid mark on the fabric of society.
I didn’t watch it, but I have heard it included jokes about aborting and cannibalizing babies in effigy and inside abortion chambers. Or maybe the joke was about such jokes, which are common to the left.
Sex with your own daughter? Fists would fly in my world.
Southern Democrat world?
I actually agree with Colbert on this one (and that’s rare). The WHCD people hired Wolf to do precisely what she did. If they didn’t know what she was going to do, they should have, and I have no doubt that they did know.
Now, in practice it played badly. Probably all of us have at some time or another in our lives said something we thought would be clever or funny until we said it, and realized it sounded lame or rude or stupid even to ourselves.
That’s where the press corps is today. She reflected their hate back at them, but spoken aloud it didn’t sound as funny as they expected, and they realized it made a really, really bad visual and audio, and as one reporter put it, more or less handed Trump a huge PR win.
So now they’re in damage control mode. But it’s no use pretending that Wolf didn’t do what she was hired to do.
M J R Says:
April 30th, 2018 at 11:58 pm
“Yes, some of ’em said it went too far, that it was in bad taste; but how many of those said so only because of how demented it all looked?”
As HC68 implied, they are only sorry that they got caught.
“So now they’re in damage control mode. But it’s no use pretending that Wolf didn’t do what she was hired to do.”
This is what you call a “target rich environment.”
Just think of all the anti-Democrat election commercials that can be made out of this rancid, mean spirited performance.
Next, we have Kathy Griffin and her schtick.
Then, there may well still be Hillary to run against, and all of her increasingly unhinged statements about how it must have been a rare misalignment of the planets that caused her defeat, or perhaps it was that sexist, woman-hating “Man in the Moon” who jinxed her, or something.
We have increasingly demented Pilosi of the “crumbs” remark.
How about slimy, slippery Comey, Clapper, and Brennan, and it goes on and on.
It’s an embarrassment of riches, it seems to me.