Saturday night was the first time the annual White House Correspondents' dinner had been held in three years, and the room was packed full of completely unmasked journalists, celebrities, and politicians of every flavor. The comedian of the hour was Trevor Noah, and surprisingly in the comedy-less world we live in, he did not hold back, roasting everyone.
President Joe Biden spoke before Trevor Noah and managed to get through a set of jokes mostly aimed at the GOP and his predecessor Donald Trump, which of course was met loud applause and jeers.
And then when the president sat down, Trevor Noah took the podium.
His first line set the stage:
I got a promise I will not be going to jail. I'll switch things up now. Let's see how we do this!
And then he proceeded to evenly roast every flavor of politician and journalist in the room. My absolute favorite part was watching every one squirm and look around to see who was laughing at what.
This part where he roasted Biden was especially good:
You know, sir, can I just say, I think everyone will agree it's nice to once again have a president who's not afraid to come to the White House Correspondents' Dinner and hear jokes about himself? I'll be honest. I'll be honest. If you didn't come I totally would've understood. Because these people have been so hard on you, which I don't get. I really don't. You know, I think ever since you've come into office, things are really looking up. Gas is up. Rent is up. Food is up. Everything.
Brutal. And Joe Biden had to laugh, otherwise he'd look even worse!
If you have time to kill, and it doesn't get memory-holed, you can watch the whole set on the C-span video below.
[Language Warning]
Otherwise, here is a selection of the best lines:
- I want us all to have a good time tonight so please relax. You know? I know everyone in this room is worried about who catches you laughing at what, but just chill. We're celebrating. We're out. You know? Get comfortable. Not too comfortable, Jeffrey Toobin.
- What a room we have here tonight. We've got politicians. We've got the media. We've got celebrities. Basically everyone who has been to Jeffrey Epstein's island.
- Quick note before people order their ubers home tonight. Governor Greg Abbott is generously providing free buses for the Telemundo table.
- Whenever there's a disaster anywhere in the world Chef Jose is there, which I guess is why he is why he's sitting at the CNN table tonight.
- The real reason it is such an honor to be here tonight is because we get to be in the same room as the most powerful man in the United States, so let's give it up for Joe Manchin, everybody.
- To President Biden: I was a little confused about why me, but then I was told you get your highest approval ratings when a biracial African guy is standing next to you.
- To Jen Psaki: Right now, your current job is to make this administration look as good as possible, you know? At all costs. Now, you're going to be at MSNBC, and…no, never mind you'll be fine.
- Fox News is kind of like a Waffle House. Relatively normal in the afternoon, but once the sun goes down, there's a drunk lady named Janine ready to fight every Mexican that comes in.
- There's a lot happening in the world right now. Sometimes you just want to tune it all out. That's why I watch CNN.
- Please be careful leaving tonight. We all know that this administration doesn't handle evacuations well.
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