The funniest president ever drops the mic.
Before the Obama administration, The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was not that big of a deal. When it made headlines it was usually for the performance of the comedian brought in to host that year’s event.Stephen Colbert’s infamous on-stage verbal murder of the Bush Administration comes to mind. What was less noteworthy was the President’s remarks. Typically the President would do some soft, political jokes before sitting down and letting the professional take over. This changed under the Obama administration. And it changed for a very simple reason: Barack Obama is really good at telling jokes. He’s got legitimately great timing, a well-defined comic persona, and a willingness to legitimately roast people. And depending on who he’s roasting, occasionally some legitimate malice and disgust will come through, which is amazing and makes everything even funnier. Here are some good jokes from last night:
- “I know I was a little late tonight. I was running on CPT, which stands for ‘jokes that white people should not make.'”
- “If this material goes well, I’m going to use it at Goldman Sachs next year. Earn me some serious Tubmans.”
- “It’s not just Congress. Even some foreign leaders have been looking ahead. Anticipating my departure. Last week, Prince George showed up to our meeting in his bathrobe. That was a slap in the face. A clear breach of protocol.”
- “GOP Chairman Reince Preibus is here as well. Glad to see you feel you’ve earned a night off. Congratulations on all your success. The Republican party, the nomination process, it’s all going great. Keep it up!”
- “A lot of folks have been surprised by the Bernie phenomenon, but not me. I get it. Just recently a young person came up to me and said she was sick of politicians standing in the way of her dreams. As if we were actually going to let Malia go to Burning Man this year. Bernie might have let her go. Not us.”
- “I am hurt though Bernie that you’ve been distancing yourself from me. I mean that’s just not something you do to your comrade.”
- “The Republican establishment is incredulous that he’s their most likely nominee. They say Donald lacks the foreign policy experience to be president. But in fairness, he has spent years meeting with leaders from around the world. Miss Sweden. Miss Argentina. Miss Azerbaijan.”
Then the President introduced a sketch where he tries to figure out what he’s going to do in DC once he’s no longer president. The big takeaway is that Joe Biden is a pretty hilarious actor.
You can watch President Obama’s whole speech here:
I can’t help but feel a little bad for eventual President Hillary Clinton. This will be a tough act to follow.
May 1, 2016