*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, April 29th, 2018 4:10pm PDT - promote requested by L0cky.

Was avoiding watching this as I was getting hints it was a cringeworthy bomb from the news headlines.

I just watched it and it's masterful, she totally landed it. The control of the audience was amazing. The one time she had total silence from a joke was completely intentional for the follow up.

/me adds Michelle Wolf to list of comedians to keep watching.

If you've been avoiding it for similar reasons, go give it a watch.

Yeah, it turns out the administration is full of humorless thin-skinned assholes. That's the subtle context that tends to go unreported.

I saw a good juxtaposition video of her toothless jokes about Conway and Huckabee-Sanders at what's usually a roast of the current administration followed by Trump talking about Rosie O'Donnell and others on the campaign trail and later.
Funny how exponentially more personal and nasty remarks about a private citizen being disgusting, fat, and ugly inside and out are funny to them, but a joke about the Whitehouse spokesperson using burnt facts as makeup are just uncalled for and totally out of line.
*facepalm

Comedy wise, I thought it was pretty hit and miss. Some of the jokes just weren’t that funny.

But for “speaking truth to power”?? It was *quality.

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by ChaosEngine.

I have watched it 4 times now, gets better each time.

Just wasn't funny to me. Seemed like they were just trying too hard.

It really says something to me when the President of the organization that sponsors the event makes a statement distancing themselves from the host.

"Last night's program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people," Talev said. "Unfortunately, the entertainer's monologue was not in the spirit of that mission."

Talev's Sunday night email to members indicated that changes could be afoot. She said she and SiriusXM's Olivier Knox, the association's next president, "are committed to hearing from members on your views on the format of the dinner going forward."

Trump is a fucking disaster at every conceivable level. He's a terrible president, a shitty businessman and a failure on the most basic human levels.

The question is: do we call this a special circumstance and disregard our own standards of civil discourse? Do we NEED to abandon etiquette (and possibly ethics) because the alternative is so much worse?

Or does that just play into his hands? Insulting Trump like this is kinda like playing chess with a pigeon — it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory.

And THAT is his one skill.

I laughed loudest at the jokes where the crowd seemed the most silent (hard to tell, some sort of noise-gate cutting a lot of audience response out I think)

Alternatives please...

If you have any, I'd love to hear them.

Yes....but the correspondents dinner is historically a light roast of the administration, one they are expected to attend and laugh at. By it's own standards, this year was fairly tame, but still way too much for the baby in chief and his babysitters who simply cannot take 1/10 of the disrespect they dish out.

We can't abandon humor at the right's expense just because they're incredibly thin skinned babies.

I get that, I just didn't think some of the jokes were particularly funny. That's cool, humour is subjective.

1/2 the audience being devoid of humor didn't help.
That said, there have certainly been better years.

Seth on Michelle Wolf

Past Correspondents dinner roasts had much more bite than Wolf's and nary got 1/10th of the "controversy."

If I understand the situation correctly, the MOST "divisive" joke Wolf told was the "Smoky Eye" joke. The Right claims it's divisive & disgusting because it's a physical attack on Sanders? What the hell? In what context it's physical? The punchline is all political/fake-news rebuttal, not physical to me. It's not a comment of Sanders' physique/appearance. Wolf's not that cheap. IMO that joke was brilliantly delivered, unique and all hers. Most of the rest are not Wolf's best though. I've seen her jokes that are far more biting, I honestly think she toned it down already for the dinner.

Wolf made fun of her own body ALL THE TIME at Trevor Noah's Show and other comedy venues. That's a sign of self-confidence.

Besides, past Presidents (Dem AND Rep) also got chances to roast many people (themselves, others and a bit of self-loathing too) at these dinners too.

Comedy roasts ARE suppose to be non-PC. Taking the punches well actually humanizes the POTUS.

appropriately crass

This was a correspondence Dinner, Not a roast.

She went too far on some.

The correspondents dinner is essentially a lighthearted roast, has been as long as I remember.

How dare a comedian be 1/10 as insulting as the president is daily!?

Snowflakes.

I thought parts of it were cringeworthy, but that that was entirely intentional. Sometimes that cringe is precisely what a comic is going for.

Honestly, I don't remember any of these being a "roast" to the degree that this one was. Thinking back on them in Obama's era, all I can remember is the mic-drop moment when Obama turned the tables and said Dick Cheney was the worst president in his memory, and Keegan-Michael Key being Obama's anger translator. Obama could certainly handle light/moderate jabs directed at him, but I don't remember that being done much if any at these specific events. Maybe it was and I just don't remember it.

Anyway, I think that saying that this upped the ante and went for the jugular significantly more than in the past is almost certainly correct. But that doesn't make it "bad" or "disrespectful" or whatever. I don't care that Trump didn't attend, even though presidents "traditionally" do. Hell, given the whole "fake news" shtick that he is trying to sell, he should have barred any White House staff from attending -- even/especially Press Secretary Sanders.

BUT, then after the event he should have simply said that he didn't watch it and that he doesn't give a rats ass what was said there instead of sulking about it on twitter. Acting all offended just makes him look like a little bitch (and that goes for all the other R's that have whined also).


Anyway, I guess overall I thought her bit was a good but not great set. Doing that material with that mixed audience guarantees that there's going to be some uncomfortable silences and crickets, but she clearly anticipated and managed that quite well. Roasts aren't really my thing, but given the machismo image that Trump tries to push it may well have been the perfect way to bait him into looking like a crybaby in his inevitable response. Mission accomplished?

Actually, I remember Obama's speeches better than the comedians. I had completely forgotten about Larry Wilmore, Wanda Sykes and even Seth Meyers (who is the whole damn reason we have Trump!).

Obama killed it.... easily the best orator of the past few decades (for US presidents).

The truth hurts!

I vaguely remember Larry Wilmore doing it, but had forgotten the others. 100% agree that Obama was the highlight of the event by far while he was in office.

Whatever one's political leanings, I think that any objective party had to appreciate Obama's speaking skills.

Frankly I think every press conference should go like this.

Snowflake.

Stephen Colbert (The Other One) On Michelle Wolf's Speech has been added as a related post - related requested by notarobot on that post.