And with that, the final White House Correspondents’ Dinner of the Obama administration came to an end with, if not raucous cheers, not exactly the hostile reception past comedians have received.
You can’t say that Larry Wilmore killed: his humor – as it normally is – was a bit more of the wait-did-he-really-say-that variety, which is definitely not in keeping with the typical WHCD crowd ... which tends to think that he perhaps ought not to have said it. And, Wilmore’s jibes at CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Don Lemon, MSNBC’s morning show juggernaut Morning Joe and the death of print journalism (all topics well-covered at the event in past years, but normally by the president) were pretty unpopular with the likely inebriated crowd, earning him a couple of loud boos from folks who probably ought to have known better.
Laughing at himself is a skill the president managed to perfect at these things over the years; it’s one that not all the journalists in attendance seem to have mastered (though Don Lemon pasted a smile on and waved at the crowd). At least his reception wasn’t so poor that, like the year after Colbert made fun of George W Bush, the association will be tempted to find the most banal, grandparent-friendly comedian possible.
And next year will bring a new president: the question now is whether that president will be able to laugh at him or herself, and how much material with which she or he will give the host to work.
Wilmore ends by noting that, in his lifetime, we’ve gone from a country that couldn’t accept a black quarterback on a footbalk team to one that elected a black president. “So Mr President, I’m going to keep it 100. Yo, Barry, you did it my n*****.”
On one of Obama’s biggest failed promises. “I just got a note from the president saying that if you want another drink, you should order it now because the bar will be closing down. Of course, he said the same thing about Guantanamo, so you have at least another eight years.”
Returning to Obama: “I don’t know when we’re getting a black president again. I mean, they’re not even going to let Morgan Freeman be president in movies for a while.”
On Ted Cruz: “Man, everybody hates Ted Cruz. Even OJ Simpson said, ‘Man, that guy’s just hard to like’.”
“There’s a joke going around the internet that Ted Cruz is actually the Zodiac Killer. That’s absurd: some people actually liked the Zodiac Killer.”
“John Boehner came out of retirement and described Ted Cruz as ‘Lucifer in the flesh.’ Lucifer! I mean, that is not fair. Lucifer is horrible, but he’s not the Zodiac killer.”
“I don’t even think Ted Cruz wants to be president. I just think he’s criss-crossing the country Zodiac-killing.”
More on Trump: “Morning Joe has their head so far up Trump’s ass, they bumped into Chris Christie.”
“Donald Trump looks like the rich dad in every single episode of Law and Order where the frat kid accidentally strangles the hooker, doesn’t he. Or, as they say here at the Washington Hilton, ‘Tuesdays’.”
On Donald Trump: “Donald Trump says he’s going to try to be more presidential, it’s true. He’s serious about it, too. So he says that now when he boasts about his genitalia during a debate, he’s only going to refer to it as his President Johnson. LBJ? Oh, very good.”
“I can’t understand why everyone treats Donald Trump with kid gloves. And then I realized they’re the only gloves that will fit his stupid little baby hands.”
.@larrywilmore: on Donald Trump. #WHCD #WHCD2016 #NerdPromhttps://t.co/FiI2OLDh6z
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 1, 2016
Updated
On Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders: “Bernies’s been hanging around with rapper Killer Mike, or as Hillary Clinton calls him ‘Super Predator Mike’.”
“Hillary Clinton was flustered when a Black Lives Matter protestor challenged her. I haven’t seen a white lady that upset over being blind-sided by a black person since Kelly Ripa.”
On Bernie Sanders: “He recently had a hernia operation. His doctors say it’s his own fault, for trying to lift the hopes of the disenfranchised. You gotta stretch before you do that, Senator.”
.@larrywilmore jokes that @BernieSanders "usually goes to the White House Correspondents' Early Bird Dinner." #WHCDhttps://t.co/LDehfqkVX2
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 1, 2016
On Ben Carson: “He praised [Andrew] Jackson, saying he was a tremendous president. From the grave, Andrew Jackson replied ‘What did that jigaboo say?’”
On Chris Christie: “He RSVP’d for three: him, his wife and Donald Trump’s dry-cleaning. Chris lost a lot of weight recently, didn’t he. He said he just eliminated everything from his routine that wasn’t necessary, like his self-pride and dignity.”
After a few more anti-CNN jokes (one of which earned him boos “I used to watch it back when it was a news network”), it was Fox’s turn: “And not to throw any shade, but Fox News is the highest-rated cable news channel among viewers who have no idea what shade means.”
And after joking about Fox’s wall-to-wall anti-Beyoncé coverage post Superbowl: “I think Fox secretly likes Beyoncé, though. They just renamed The Kelly File ‘Becky With The Good Hair”.
On MSNBC: “Which actually now stands for Missing a Significant Number of Black Correspondents.”
“MSNBC got rid of so many black people, I thought Boko Haram was running that network.”
Updated
On broadcast media: “C-Span is carrying tonight’s dinner live, which is ironic, because most of their viewers aren’t. It’s true, guys. C-Span is the number one network among people who died watching TV and no one’s found them yet.”
.@LarryWilmore: "C-SPAN is the number 1 network among people who died watching TV & no one's found them yet." #WHCDhttps://t.co/UvCc5N3jkW
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 1, 2016
He also cracks a Jeb Bush suicide watch joke, to groans.
On being in the company of the elite: “It’s nice to match the names to the faces in the Panama Papers.”
On the death of print media: “A couple of years ago during this dinner,you were killing Osama bin Laden, remember that? Who are you killing tonight? Can’t be print journalism, that industry’s been dead for a while. Sorry! I’m just kidding. Shout out to the print media. No, really, you have to shout, they’re like all over 70 now.”
Silence in the ballroom.
On the president’s visible aging while in office: “Your hair is so white it tried to punch me at a Trump rally. The president’s hair is so white it keeps trying to say ‘All Lives Matter.’ No, man, you came in here looking like Denzel, now you’re going out looking like Grady from Sanford and Sons. I know it’s a dated reference, but you’re dated Mr President! All I’m saying is that, in less than eight years Mr President, you’ve busted two time-honored stereotypes. Black does crack. And apparently once you go black, it looks like we are going back. Thanks, Ben Carson.”
Wilmore compliments Michelle Obama: “She’s the epitome of grace, class and poise. Not to be confused with future First Gentleman Bill Clinton, whose three favorite strippers are named Grace, Class and Poise.”
He goes after Wolf Blitzer: “Speaking of drones, how is Wolf Blitzer still on television”” he asked, to a few drunken jeers. “Ask a follow-up question! Hey Wolf, I’m reader to project tonight’s winner: anyone that isn’t watching The Situation Room.”
Wolf, and the audience, remained stone-faced.
Wilmore compares Obama to Golden State Warriors star player Steph Curry: “Both of you like raining down bombs on people from long distances.”
Wilmore suggests that next year the dinner will be called “Donald Trump presents a luxurious evening paid for by Mexico” and thanks “Mitch McConnell for not blocking my nomination. You gotta give Mitch McConnell credit: at this point, he could block LeBron James.”
Larry Wilmore takes the stage
“Welcome to Negro night here at the Washington Hilton” he begins. “Or as Fox news will report, ‘Two thugs disrupt elegant dinner in DC.”
And a response from Patrick Gavin:
I wrote a while back that the White House Correspondents’ Association should use its biggest spotlight – this dinner – to shine a light on the struggles it faces. White House Correspondents’ Association President Carol Lee did an admirable job pointing out the Associations’ mission, but I wish she would have done more: Talking about the Obama administration’s persecution of whistleblowers and the difficulty of FOIA requests, to name a few. Her remarks on journalists under threat around the world was excellent.
It says something that President Obama spent greater time talking about the current state of media than the Association itself.
It says something about how perceptions of this dinner have changed during the Obama years that Obama now routinely mocks the dinner itself, noting that it’s “tacky” and a “unique event.” He routinely notes how he might rather not be there. I suspect this might be an ongoing trend.
Best jokes:
- His “CPT” diss on Hillary/de Blasio
- Noting that he’s so hold, he’ll be meeting his death panel soon.
- Ouch, that Jake Tapper burn.
- Ouch, that Hillary-Facebook burn. (I counted *five* Hillary jokes)
- Ouch, that “And I’m supposed to be the foreign one” diss on Ted Cruz.
- “The last time I was this high...” It’s great to see a president casually poking fun at himself over smoking cigarettes and marijuana.
Also: as we all might have guessed, Merrick Garland jokes are destined to ... bomb.
Updated
And then he did the inevitable serious bit, and signed out for the rest of his life.
.@POTUS: "Obama out." #WHCD #WHCD2016 #nerdprom https://t.co/OMYH1e9gNa
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 1, 2016
Then he shows a video about what he’s going to do with the two years they’ve promised to stay in DC to allow their daughter to finish high school.
It featured cameos from Joe Biden and John Boehner, the inevitable birth certificate joke and the second one about mom jeans of the evening, plus one each about LinkedIn and old people trying to use Snapchat. It was titled “Couch Commander”. You aren’t sorry that you missed it.
But here it is:
President Obama's video on leaving the White House (with @JohnBoehner cameo). #NerdPromhttps://t.co/5LvW8GYlnE
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 1, 2016
Updated
And more on Trump: “There’s one area where Donald’s experience could be invaluable, and that’s closing Guantanamo, because Trump knows a thing or two about running waterfront properties into the ground. Alright, that’s probably enough, I’ve got more material. I don’t want to spend too much time on The Donald. Following your lead, I want to show some restraint, because I think we can all agree that, from the start, he’s gotten the appropriate amount of coverage befitting the seriousness of his candidacy. I hope y’all are proud of yourselves. The guy wanted to give his hotel business a boost and now we’re all praying that Cleveland makes it through July.”
He initially fakes out the audience by pretending to segue into the serious journalism-celebrating part, but rounds back on Trump: “Although I am a little hurt that he’s not here tonight. We had so much fun the last time. And it is surprising: you’ve got a room full of reporters, celebrities, cameras and he says no. Is this dinner too tacky for The Donald? What could he possible be doing instead? Is he at home eating a Trump steak tweeting out insults to Angela Merkel? What’s he doing?”
On Ted Cruz calling a basketball hoop “a basketball ring” in Indiana: “What else is in his lexicon? Baseball sticks? Football hats? But, sure, I’m the foreign one.”
On John Kasich: “Meanwhile, some candidates aren’t polling high enough to qualify for their own joke tonight. The rules were well established ahead of time.”
On the Republican race:
“Things are a little more... how should we say this, a little more loose? Just look at the invitations to tonight’s dinner. Guests were asked to check whether they wanted steak or fish, but instead a whole bunch of you wrote in Paul Ryan. That’s not an option people. Steak or fish. You may not like steak or fish, but that’s your choice.”
He then compares “Feel the Bern” as a slogan to Hillary Clinton’s: “Trudge up the Hill.”
He added: “You’ve got to admit it, Hillary trying to appeal to young voters is a little like your relative who just signed up for Facebook. ‘Dear America, did you get my poke? Is it appearing on your wall? I’m not sure I’m using this right. Love, Aunt Hillary.’ It’s not entirely persuasive.”
He adds: “I am hurt, though, Bernie, that you’ve been distancing yourself a little from me. I mean, that’s just not something that you do to your comrade.”
Acknowledging Bernie Sanders, “the bright new face of the Democratic party”, Obama says: “Bernie, you look like a million bucks. Or to put it in terms you’ll understand, you look like 37,000 donations of $27 each.”
.@POTUS: "We've got the bright new face of the Democratic Party here tonight: Mr. @BernieSanders." #WHCD #NerdPromhttps://t.co/aPgLP4e5Vr
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 1, 2016
Updated
To former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg, whom he initially compared to the other NYC billionaire leading the race for the Republican nomination. “It’s not an entirely fair comparison between you and The Donald. After all, Mike was a big city mayor, he knows policy in-depth and he’s actually worth the amount of money that he says he is.
Updated
Obama “congratulates” Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus on earning a night off after the successful and uncontroversial conclusion of the Republican primary process.
He also called out Helen Mirren. “Helen Mirren is here tonight. I don’t even have a joke here, I just think Helen Mirren is awesome.”
And now for the annual jokes about the decline of the journalism industry: “I also would like to acknowledge some of the award-winning reporters that we have with us here tonight: Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schrieber. Thank you all for everything that you’ve done. I’m just joking, as you know Spotlight is a film, a movie about investigative journalist with the resources and the autonomy to chase down the truth and hold the powerful accountable. Best fantasy film since Star Wars.”
He added: “Every year at this dinner, somebody makes a joke about Buzzfeed, for example, changing the media landscape. And every year the Washington Post laughs a little bit less hard.”
The laughter was pretty uncomfortable.
It’s time for the annual Joe Biden joke: “I love Joe Biden, I really do. I want to thank him for his friendship, for his counsel, for always giving it to me straight, for not shooting anybody in the face.”
Speaking of his increasing popularity in his final year in office, he says “The last time I was this high, I was trying to decide on my major”, to a few loud shrieks of laughter.
“Even my aides can’t explain the rising poll numbers” he adds. “What has changed? No one can figure it out.”
And then he showed pictures of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.
In a reference to Michelle Obama’s infamous lack of enthusiasm for being in Washington, he said: “You might have heard that someone jumped the White House fence last week, but I have to give the Secret Service credit, they found Michelle, brought her back, she’s sitting back at home now. It’s only nine more months, baby.”
Obama takes a swipe at the press, noting that Savannah Guthrie and Norah O’Donnell left the White Hous e... and “Jake Tapper left journalism to join CNN”.
Howls are heard in the audience; Tapper is seem taking a sip of wine.
.@POTUS: "@JakeTapper left journalism to join CNN." #NerdProm #WHCD #WHCD2016https://t.co/1DdYnNaoBm
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 1, 2016
Updated
Obama says “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.”
Obama cracks a “red wedding” joke, after suggesting that they consider Merrick Garland’s US supreme court nomination in the hall.
After a series of jokes about how he ages and Michelle Obama always looks the same, Obama’s joke about being unpopular with Republicans falls flat. “In just six short months, I will be officially a lame duck, which means Congress now will flat-out reject my authority and Republican leaders won’t take my phone calls. And this is going to take some getting used it, it’s a curve ball, I don’t know what to do with it.”
He pauses, waiting for laughter; the audience was waiting for the punch line.
Enlarged prostate jokes always kill with the heavily male White House press corps: “Hillary once questioned whether I’d be ready for a 3am phone call. Now I’m awake anway because I’ve got to go to the bathroom. I’m up.”
Obama makes a joke about being “gray and grizzled, just counting down the days to my death panel.” (It’s not his first death panel joke of the last eight years.)
He adds: “If this material works well, I’m going to use it at Goldman Sachs next year, earn me some serious Tubmans”, references to Clinton’s now-controversial well-remunerated speeches to the financial services firm and the recent decision to put the founder of the Underground Railroad on US currency.
Obama apologizes for being late, and says “I was running on CPT, which stands for ‘Jokes That White People Should Not Make’” – a reference to a recent, poorly-thought-through skit by NYC mayor Bill Di Blasio and Hillary Clinton in which she “castigated” him for endorsing her so late, and he claimed to have been “running on CP time.” (“CP time” means “colored-people time”, a racist reference to the supposed habitual tardiness of people of color.)
The majority-white crowd screamed with laughter.
Updated
President Barack Obama takes the stage
It’s his last White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech, and he took the stage to the strains of “You’re going to miss me when I’m gone.”
White House Correspondents’ Association president Carol Lee introduced a video of the presidents’ most memorable press conferences, touching on the passage of Obamacare, the killing of Osama bin Laden, immigration reform, the thawing of relations with Cuban and the Iran deal.
It also catalogued some of the times he slipped, hit his head, repeated the phrase “be clear”, tripped up his words, failed to correctly identify the reporter to which he was speaking and wore “mom jeans.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association is now handing out its journalism awards, and freed Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian is doing the honors.
A full list of those awards can be found here.
Read Rezaiain’s post-freedom interview here:
First Lady Michelle Obama takes the stage
Michelle Obama is on stage to present the White House Correspondents’ Association scholarships to the student winners.
A complete list of the young people getting hugs from the First Lady can be found here.
The Sunlight Foundation decided to troll the press corps in attendance at the TIME-People pre-party on Friday night (sponsored by Toyota, presumably among others.)
The non-profit organization – which, among other things, maintains a free, easy-to-use database of all political donations – asked departing attendees to donate their ginormous canvas bags of free stuff to the charity, with little success.
Watch video of their efforts – including the demand by one reporter “Don’t make us look bad by going to a party” – below.
Last year’s swag bags were worth an estimated $550, including the LeSportsac bag in which they came.
Updated
Like Donald Trump himself, Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs is not at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but not because he can’t take a joke. Jacobs has a scoop on the New Hampshire Republican party’s apparent efforts to undermine the New Hampshire Republican primary winner, one Donald J Trump.
In an email obtained by the Guardian, the state’s Republican leadership proposed a slate where the delegate chair and every committee slot would be filled by supporters of other candidates.
In other words, while Trump’s convention delegates from New Hampshire are safe and sound, New Hampshire Republicans are trying to make sure that everyone else’s supporters will fill the committee slots – especially those slots on the rules committee, which may well determine how the convention functions and whether, in a contested convention scenario, Trump really takes home his prize.
Read more:
And if watching the nation’s political and celebrity elite finally get served their petit filets au poivre isn’t quite thrilling enough, read more about Father Daniel Berrigan, who died today at the age of 94. Berrigan was a prominent Catholic anti-war and social justice activist who helped shaped the face of American opposition to the Vietnam War.
Daniel J. Berrigan, Defiant Priest Who Preached Pacifism, Dies at 94 https://t.co/x4GZerF6US
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) May 1, 2016
Lots of great tributes to Daniel Berrigan happening. https://t.co/iPfrF9wJDA
— Nicole Cliffe (@Nicole_Cliffe) May 1, 2016
Updated
And as C-Span cuts away from Wolf Blitzer chewing and toasting with Reince Priebus – they were drinking the Franciscan Estate chardonnay, according to C-Span, which got a not-bad review from Cheap Wine Ratings, though decide for yourself whether that’s a good thing or not – Patrick Gavin weighs in on what jokes he’s waiting for from the president and host Larry Wilmore.
Things I’ll be looking for:
- Are jokes about Politico not funny/edgy anymore? (Politico’s break-every-news-story-down-on-the-basis-of-how-if-affects-the-next-election coverage was a source of constant humor in previous years, though they were also among the most DC-insidery.)
- Hastert jokes. Anyone dare? (Former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was sentenced this to 15 months in prison this week for financial crimes related to molesting teenagers during his pre-Congressional years as a high school wrestling coach. Hastert admitted in court that he had “mistreated” some of the teenagers he coached.)
- Trump jokes: Sure, they’ll be funny but they’re also the low hanging fruit – easy and expected. Maybe we’ll see less than we think. (Or maybe not.)
- Any chance Wilmore brings up last year’s embarrassment? (During last year’s event, protests in nearby Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray in police custody took a more serious turn even as jokes about racialized violence were told on the stage.)
- Obama Nicorette re-loads. My guess is on a baker’s dozen. (The president infamously quit smoking before getting into the 2008 presidential race, and it was once a Washington blogger/gossip game to try to catch him smoking again.)
I’m excited to be joined by journalist and documentary filmmaker Patrick Gavin, who is an expert on what the dinner was, is and could be.
Hi! Excited to hop on board. I covered this dinner/weekend for 10 years at such places as Politico, Washington Examiner and FishbowlDC. I probably held the distinction of turning in some the dumbest coverage of anyone. (Sorry!)
After a bit of a catharsis, I took a more critical look in 2015 with my first documentary, Nerd Prom: Inside Washington’s Wildest Week, and, ever since, I’ve become like the least popular in town all weekend thanks to some of my critical coverage.
Anyway! So what should you know going into this thing? Here are the things about this event that depress me:
-
The amount they give away in scholarships is pretty paltry.
-
The Association itself doesn’t always practice what they preach.
- The cause of White House correspondents? It actually is super important and worthy of your attention.
You could be forgiven for wondering the obvious: Why is the biggest event in a town with low approval ratings for everyone (reporters, politicians alike) a big self-celebration?
Yeah, you’re telling me.
Okay, let’s drink!
Read Patrick’s OpEd for The Guardian today:
The president arrives at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
After this, they’ll sit down and eat a fancy dinner prepared and served for 2,700 people and served by hourly wage employees.
Catering staff at the Washington Hilton, where the event is held, are by and large people of color represented by United Here! Local 25.
In other catering news, Trump’s SoHo property in New York has been accused by a former catering staffer of stiffing its catering staff on tips in violation of New York law. The catering, though, is handled by a subcontractor.
If you’re watching the live feed above, and getting bored watching a bunch of people you don’t know get slowly drunk and schmooze with other people you don’t know, interspersed with their efforts to talk to celebrities without seeming like utter fan-boys and -girls, might I recommend checking out some quality journalism from The Guardian?
The first American has died of complications the Zika virus.
Law enforcement in Lebanon broke up a sex trafficking ring that had enslaved dozens of female Syrian refugees who had gone there to escape the war in their home country.
Updated
And if you’re wondering why people call it “nerd prom”, they cribbed it from now-MTV news correspondent (and former Guardian columnist) Ana Marie Cox, who wasn’t being exactly kind when she coined it.
Now, it’s used as a humble-brag, like “Oh, ho, aren’t I nerdy, here’s my selfie with Will Smith”; then, it was a way of mocking the annual desperation to get included on the guest list.
Cox reportedly regrets having coined the term.
Sigh. True. https://t.co/urY0Rl7Qhu
— Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) May 1, 2016
Here is Will Smith taking a selfie of himself with the photographers taking pictures of him.
If you’re curious about how the White House Correspondents’ Dinner went from being a self-congratulatory scholarship-awarding dinner to a self-congratulatory, celebrity-spotting spectacle, some more information on that can be found here.
Gary the Dog steals the show at the White House Correspondents' Dinner
Carrie Fisher, attending the dinner as a guest of The Guardian, created the biggest red carpet stir by bringing her dog, Gary.
.@twhiddleston, @carrieffisher's & @Gary_TheDog on #WHCD Red Carpet https://t.co/HrRHIJ8Jn1 #NerdProm #WHCD2016https://t.co/98lhCgSem2
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 30, 2016
As you may have heard, dogs don’t really like to be hugged by their owners, according to “science” but, since this is America and, in the current political climate, only uncontroversial science is accepted as fact (as demonstrated by climate denialism), it’s unclear how much of a difference any scientific findings will make to dog-owners.
The red carpet is wrapping up as the stragglers head into the dinner, but we’ll continue to find something to cover (I hear there are other things happening in the world?) as the 2,700 guests tuck into their diver scallops, steak, shrimp, dessert and – according to C-Span – Napa Valley wines.
Meanwhile, here are The Guardian’s guests, Tom Hiddleston, Carrie Fisher and Gary the dog, posing on the red carpet. (C-Span assures us that Gary was very popular on Twitter.)
Just now on C-Span, People editor JD Heyman on celebrities and their causes.
And I think it’s a natural impulse on the part of very wealthy people and powerful people to want to be engaged in that way [with a cause]. So I think it’s both for public image reasons and financial management reasons and just human reasons that people become involved in either political or environmental or other work related to causes. I know that most Americans may raise an eyebrow about the causes of some celebrities, but many of them feel the causes quite profoundly and do want to engage and feel like, you know, noblesse does not come without oblige and they should do something with their celebrity and their resources.
Here is a picture of Kendall Jenner, of the Kardashian Jenners, arriving at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which is dedicated to the important role the fourth estate plays in holding the executive branch of the US government to account.
The dinner is, as you can imagine, not without its critics.
New York City-based photographer Clayton Cubitt, a Bernie Sanders supporter, is among them.
The White House Correspondents Dinner is the grossest spectacle of oligarchic incest since the Borgia papacy.
— Clayton Cubitt (@claytoncubitt) April 30, 2016
You can see some of hits Vets4Bernie portraits here:
So is Tressie McMillan Cottom, an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The WHCD is a very strange world with very strange bedfellows.
— Tressie Mc (@tressiemcphd) April 30, 2016
(Her essay on Prince after his death is a must-read.)
And here’s a picture of prominent Sanders supporter and Clinton critic, Rosario Dawson.
Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s middle son, says that he’s prepared to hear jokes about his dad.
@EricTrump's ready for possible @realDonaldTrump-related jokes from @POTUS at the #WHCD: https://t.co/WX9oKi6vcF https://t.co/WSsHXU1YDS
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 30, 2016
The Donald is boycotting because of how dishonest the media is, and not because he got made fun of a lot last year and has a thin skin.
Read more about how he got zinged by the sitting president last year.
C-Span reports that the dinner tonight will consist of “Petite filet au poivre paired with honey and orange infused shrimp, dunk confit, souffle potato, asparugus, zucchini, carrot and roasted peppers.”
Americans in 2016, by the way, waste 50% more food than they did in the 1970s.
Anyway, here’s Lady Mary from Downton Abbey.
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders is also a guest of the media tonight.
And, if you’re a long-time Trump watcher, it’s perhaps no surprise to see Omarosa Manigault, who told The Hollywood Reporter at a pre-party that she’s “a Trumplican”.
She added:
This is a reality TV generation, right? They’re used to characters on TV saying whatever, doing whatever. Doing crazy things. Changing the game. That’s what we’ve done. We did that on The Apprentice in 2003. We’re doing that with the presidency in 2016.
She currently appears on the trail as a Trump surrogate. Trump has not revealed if he plans to nominate her to a position within his administration.
Aretha Franklin is in the house.
If you didn’t see her perform at this year’s Kennedy Center Honors, why not take a moment and check it out.
Emma Watson, who helped launched the women’s equality effort #HeForShe is also in attendance and looking pretty cool.
If you’re interested in her work on women’s issues, perhaps you should read this piece about how rape survivors at the Mormon Brigham Young University are fighting back against honor code violations when they report their sexual assaults.
Apparently, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is a Scandal fan.
Helen Mirren is, like all of us, a Prince fan – but she wears it more than on her sleeve.
Bill Nye is hanging out with Steve Aoki:
via @BillNye: Found @steveaoki at the #WHCD. pic.twitter.com/kd05SpDv4H
— Eric Castle (@8BitYoda) April 30, 2016
There’s also Tony Goldwyn (the president on Scandal) with Shonda Rhimes.
President Fitz! @tonygoldwyn and @shondarhimes arrive at the #WHCD: https://t.co/nec8WgmdwN #Scandal pic.twitter.com/TyZijomrpX
— ExtraTV (@extratv) April 30, 2016
And Guardian US writer Steven W Thrasher is hanging out with Carrie Fisher and her dog, Gary.
Welcome to the Guardian @carrieffisher & @Gary_TheDog #whcd pic.twitter.com/xZl4jPreO5
— Steven Thrasher (@thrasherxy) April 30, 2016
Currently on C-Span, two men are discussing the propensity for some women to wear something other than high heels under their gowns at the White House Correspondents Dinner
C-Span host: Is it becoming more and more common for women to wear comfortable shoes rather than...
JD Heyman, deputy editor for entertainment at People: I actually don’t think it’s ever... Women like to wear high heels for this event, but they will often try to tuck a pair, if they’re coming with a team of people, there may be a pair of more comfortable shoes in a bag. People tough it out, pretty much.
There is a bunch of science about how terrible high heels are for your health.
The red carpet has begun: on C-SPAN, all you can hear is photographers shouting at the top of their lungs, as celebrities are led one-by-one in front of photographers. Jeff Goldblum is speaking to Extra, Emma Watson has been spotted and Assad has ended the ceasefire in Syria.
If you are the kind of person who tunes into C-Span before even the red carpet starts, you were treated to a look-back at George W Bush’s comedy stylings, which included jokes about Dick Cheney shooting people, Dick Cheney riding a segway, Dick Cheney being curious if the plot of Brokeback Mountain meant that the Lone Ranger and Tonto got it on, Bush singing off-key about how brown the grass is on his ranch and Bush conducting the Marine Corps Band playing John Phillips Sousa.
Oh, here, look: protestors supporting of the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stormed the parliament building in Iraq, prompting the declaration of a state of emergency.
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Good evening, and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the “nerd prom”, the not-quite self-deprecating nickname for the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.
This will be Barack Obama’s final turn at telling jokes behind the podium – and the current election cycle has given him plenty of fodder for his routine, which generally consists of zingers at other politicians’ expense, jibes at members of his administration and newsy references that would be cut from Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update for being not funny enough.
He’ll be followed by comedian and host Larry Wilmore, host of Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show, a The Daily Show spin-off for the former TDS correspondent. Wilmore has a typically tough job: to be funny without being offensive to the assembled politicians and media types, many of whom have an inflated sense of self – a sense not reduced by being in the presence of bona fide celebrities. Guests this year include one of Obama’s would-be successor, Bernie Sanders, as well as Aretha Franklin, Ilana Goldblum, Ilana Glazer, Will Smith and Rachel McAdams.
Infamously, the last former TDS corespondent to host the dinner, Steven Colbert, bombed with the in-crowd, though he killed with viewers at home, in 2006 because he performed in character from The Colbert Report and didn’t pull his punches about then president George W Bush, the wars he’d started or his cozy relationship with the media.
Wilmore isn’t expected to be as pointed about the incumbent president, but one suspects he has more than enough material on the potential next president with which to work.
But before that, join us for coverage of the red carpet, a little commentary from Patrick Gavin, director of the documentary Nerd Prom: The Movie and a look at what else is going on in the world that is probably more important than the sight of media types back-slapping with the politicians they’ll supposedly go back to holding to account tomorrow. (And maybe some intel about Carrie Fisher’s dog, which is supposedly going to be seated with the General herself at the Guardian’s table.)
CSpan is airing the whole event live on its site, and several cable news networks plan to cover it as well.
- At 6pm ET there will be a red carpet rolled out for stars of Hollywood, TV and music, political journalists of all stripes, and some of Washington’s most powerful politicians.
- Around 7.30pm the action will quiet, as everyone turns to the plates in front of them.
- And it revs back up again at about 9.45pm, when the president and Wilmore take the stage.
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