The Dinner Where the Commander-in-Chief plays Comedian-In-Chief

The White House Correspondents dinner is a time honored tradition where the President and and politicians have dinner with the White House Correspondents Association, a group of journalists that cover the government. In addition, members of Hollywood are invited to come hobnob with the politicians. Although the dinner is full of a lot of people banally chit-chatting, the key to the dinner is when the President and a comedian do a standup routing roasting people at the dinner.

This year, President Obama’s last Correspondents dinner, was full of hilarious digs at not just Republicans, but also at Democrats as well. He quietly implied his projection for 2016 when he said that he does not know who will be at the lectern next year, whoever she may be, a quiet nod to Hillary. On the flip side, he also joked about trying out jokes to use at Goldman Sachs next year, making fun of Clinton’s controversial speeches. He also complemented Bernie Sanders as the young face of the Democratic party, a nod to his huge level of support among millennial.

One of the best parts of the speech was when he decided to comment on the republican primary. He started by complimenting the Republican Chairman on a great primary process, a dig on the chaos that is unfolding in the Republican party. He then lit into Donald Trump, saying that he would shut down Guantanamo Bay since he has so much experience running oceanfront property into the ground. He thanked Vice President Joe Biden for his help, and for not shooting some in the face, a nod to when former Vice President Dick Cheney accidently shot someone in the face in a hunting accident. Obama also lampooned the media, saying that Jake Tapper decided to leave journalism and go to CNN.

In addition to the President’s speech, the comedian Larry Wilmore also gave a standup speech that skewered this in Washington. He received a very tepid response from the room, due to the cutting nature of his jokes. He made a joke, “Mr. President, your hair is so white, it tried to punch me at a Trump rally,” a remark aimed at the perceived discrimination at Donald Trump’s rallies. He hit Mitch McConnell for his blocking of Obama’s Supreme Court nominee by saying that at this point he could block Lebron James. He made fun of the media and said that the channel CSPAN will be holding it live, which was ironic since most of their viewers were not.

The dinner was rather cutting, but was overall a great set of comedic material.