Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

In my day, never was longer.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Republicans in disarray!

This fight is for everything.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

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Reader Interactions

71Comments

  2. 2.

    ex lawyer - Vancouver

    I liked the reference to the Donald owning the Miss USA contest. That, Seth said, would make the search for the Vice President easier.

  3. 3.

    General Stuck

    I didn’t take it as funny, so much as a rhetorical dagger delivered straight into a racist’s tiny heart.

  4. 4.

    kt

    “Donald Trump often appears on Fox, which is ironic, because a fox often appears on Donald Trump’s head”

  5. 5.

    Cat Lady

    “I was surprised to learn Trump was running as a Republican – I thought he was running as a joke.”

    FTW.

  6. 6.

    BGinCHI

    How many jokes you think Meyers and the other writers had to throw out?

    Could be a new clean energy source.

  7. 7.

    Anya

    John, that was my favorite line too. Also too, I liked

    On another issue, I am watching CNN and seeing a Mississippi Governor, Mayor of one of the affected cities by the storm damages and other officials singing the government’s praise and heartfelt thanking of Janet Napalitano and other Cabinet members. I never thought I would ever see this. Since Boss Hog doesn’t have to run, he can be a bit honest about the administration’s effort in helping his state.

  8. 8.

    RossInDetroit

    Trump’s comeback was that Myers stutters. Pointing out a disability is his idea of a clever retort.
    You stay classy, Donald.

  12. 12.

    Nellcote

    Also too…

    “I’m going to get an angry voicemail from Ginny Thomas in 19 years”

    “The Heritage Foundation predicted that joke would kill. Probably shouldn’t listen to anything they say”

    Even leaving out the Trump stuff there were some great lines.

  13. 13.

    Anya

    @RossInDetroit: Apparently the Short-Fingered Vulgarian is going to be on CNN to talk about the “accusation of racism” and why he did not laugh at Seth Meyers jokes.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    Obama’s writers did a pretty good job with his speech, but they missed a couple of style points. Firstly, since they decided that subtlety was Right Out for the musical lead in, they should have gone all-in and used ‘Born in the USA’. Secondly, the Disney joke would have utterly transcendent if he had referred to the ‘vault copy of the long-form movie’.

    Minor nitpicks on an otherwise very good job.

    dms

  17. 17.

    Citizen_X

    Here’s the Politico article where Teh Donald turns into a whiny little beeyotch over his treatment at the dinner, where he says he was “virtually the sole focus.”

    Yeah, Donald, it’s aaaalllllll about you.

  18. 18.

    Dubbreezy

    To President Obama – “If your hair gets any whiter, the tea party is going to endorse it.”

  19. 19.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I loved both Obama and Myers. I also liked the movie spoof that introduced Biden with Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “I like it raw.” Now that’s funny.

  21. 21.

    MaryQ

    “The Blacks” was a good line, sure. But there were so many others I have a hard time saying it was the best. My favorite had to do with Obama’s white hair and the Tea Party.

  22. 22.

    Scott

    Shorter Donald: “Isn’t everyone supposed to kiss my ass? (fearful look around, terrified whisper) Wh-Why isn’t everyone kissing my ass…?”

  23. 23.

    hilts

    Some folks can’t handle the truth

    Ann Althouse: “And the media would like us to believe he stuck it to Trump. Hey, it’s a victory for Trump that the President talked about him at all, and he talked about him a lot. And all these stories about how grim and grumpy Trump looked? Trump always has a grumpy expression on his face. I detected more of a shadow of a smile than usual.”

    http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/05/obama-was-pretty-funny-at-white-house.html

    Jim Hoft: “Barack Obama can lock the media in a closet, censor them, ban them from reporting events, lie about it and push them around. It doesn’t matter. The democrat-media complex will love him no matter what he does. As proof, far left comic Seth Myers beat up on Donald Trump after Obama beat up on Donald Trump last night at the media dinner. And the media loved it.”

    http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=43263

  24. 24.

    MikeJ

    My favorite bit was when they were on a crowd shot. A nice young lady in attendance had an expectant look on her face, ready to roar with laughter at the next thing said, and then the punchline: “moved to a lower tranche of a CDO!” And she keeps waiting…waiting…waiting…

  25. 25.

    PurpleGirl

    @MikeJ: I know that joke went flat but I thought it was a very good gotcha for that crowd. They didn’t like it because they know how true it was. I did laugh when he said it.

  26. 26.

    JPL

    The Bachmann line was over the potential candidate’s head..I think he could have added but “Michelle I take you at your word”. The show was hilarious though and it’s unfortunate that Trump is so thin skinned that he has to resort to made up disabilities.

  27. 27.

    Scott

    @hilts: I’ll have to repeat what I said in an earlier thread.

    Shorter Althouse and Hoft (and the rest of wingnuttia): “Leave Trump alone! LEAVE TRUMP ALOOOONE! (hysterical weeping)”

    In two weeks, they’ll be denying they ever heard of him…

  28. 28.

    Benjamin Cisco

    Didn’t see it live, but the tape is hilarious.
    __
    And I, for one, am LOVING watching Ol’ Ferret Head show his ass. Stupid fuck deserves everything he gets.

  29. 29.

    Davis X. Machina

    The WH continues to be fairly confident — and I think they’re at least as likely to be right as wrong — that they’re running against Romney.

    Jokes in three go up the ladder — and the third ‘rumor’ — the topper — that Obama mentioned was about Massachusetts and Romneycare.

  30. 30.

    bemused

    @BethanyAnne:

    It’s probably my favorite Meyers line and I think Obama’s favorite too.

    I doubt Trumps’ feelings are bruised. He’s got the hide of a rhino and he knew the cameras would be on him which is what he lives for.

  31. 31.

    Amy

    This may be the funniest part:

    Trump:

    I don’t think the American people are having a good time with $5 gas. … I was thinking to myself as they were doing this, you know, the American people are really suffering and we’re all” having fun at a gala.

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54037.html#ixzz1L8tZsl5p

    The guy’s invited to the Nerd Prom and he discovers that people actually make jokes there! Oh, he is shocked, shocked to discover humor going on there!

    No doubt that Trump is far too thin-skinned to be a successful political candidate. I’m torn between thinking that him running would be great in highlighting the nuttiness of the field or thinking it would make a relatively sane Republican look actually sane.

  32. 32.

    JGabriel

    @MaryQ:

    My favorite had to do with Obama’s white hair and the Tea Party.

    Favorite Obama Joke:

    All kidding aside, obviously, we all know about [Donald Trump’s] credentials and breadth of experience.
    __
    For example — no, seriously, just recently — in an episode of Celebrity Apprentice, at the steakhouse, the men’s cooking team, uh… did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately, you didn’t blame Lil’ Jon or Meatloaf. You fired Gary Busey.
    __
    And these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night.

    Favorite Meyers Joke:

    Donald Trump is running as a Republican, which is surprising, because … I thought he was running as a joke.

    (Ellipses above indicate pauses, not ellisions.)

    .

  33. 33.

    Suffern ACE

    @hilts: They’re just pissed because they had to rewrite their Sunday postings that they thought they had finished already. They had assumed that no one would go there when Trump was present so they had already written the standard “aloof, isolated, lecturing, out of touch, not proud of America” standard speech review.

  34. 34.

    passerby

    Yes, there was lots of good stuff from both President Obama and Meyers. I think I’m going to give my vote to:

    “My fellow Americans,… Mahalo.”

  35. 35.

    Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)

    I thought Obama and Myers killed. Donald Trump managed to get a couple of (small) smiles and a hand-wave in when it was Obama making fun of him. If the Trump jokes had ended there, there wouldn’t be too much of a focus on his reaction. He was stone-faced throughout the Myers bit though, which just made it funnier. I definitely saw people at the WaPo table laughing especially when Obama mentioned Donald focusing on the important things like where’re Biggie and Tupac.

    The bit about Obama now looking like Louis Gossett, Sr made me go ouch but Obama took it well.

  36. 36.

    Warren Terra

    I’ve never heard of Seth Meyers before. I thought the writing was very good, but the delivery was awkward. Much too self-consciously hesitant, too much “look at me being clever”.

    @Amy:

    The guy’s invited to the Nerd Prom

    That term has two meanings, and – all jokes about antisocial gamers aside – the one you didn’t use refers to an event that sounds like a perfectly worthy occasion, not deserving of being tarred with the annual shame upon our nation that is the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD). It’s nice that Obama did a good comic set, and it’s nicer that he closed by reminding the assembled of the higher role journalism can serve in our democracy. But fundamentally the WHCD is an abomination, the obtuse smug celebrating each other and reveling in the rewards of their refusal to actually fulfill their purpose. If there were any justice in the world, Colbert’s epic appearance would have done the same to the WHCD as Stewart’s appearance did to Crossfire; instead, Colbert’s appearance had two obvious effects: (1) a commitment to never again inviting a comedian with the slightest social conscience and (2) a memorable column by Richard Cohen distilling the response to Colbert of the assembled throng and demonstrating, with a truly awesome lack of self-awareness, why Colbert’s performance had been necessary and yet was doomed to be ineffectual.

  37. 37.

    Anya

    @JGabriel: Favorite part of that Obama joke was that when the President mentioned Donald’s “credentials and breadth of experience.” the audience broke into loud applause and laughter. They got the joke before the punch line.

  41. 41.

    scav

    @Anya: Worse, they’d figured out the underlying stinging moral in a multi-layered joke before they got to the actual punchline. AND they laughed.

  42. 42.

    Yutsano

    @Davis X. Machina: One would think he would have kept the receipt for an exchange or a refund down the road. This planet definitely has some major defects. Sort of reminds me of the Calvin & Hobbes bit where Calvin sells the planet for a school project to some aliens and they come back later demanding a refund.

  44. 44.

    Hal

    Gotta say; I love the conservative reactions. Essentially that Obama has more important things to worry about, and that he’s picking on poor Donald Trump.

    The fact that Chump runs to Fox News first isn’t surprising. They are the network for the thin skinned (Bill O’Reilly) xenophobic (Glenn Beck), paranoid (again, Beck) hacks (all of Fox) of the past two decades; so why not?

  45. 45.

    PurpleGirl

    @Hal: I don’t remember the dinner being canceled during the Bush years because he had more important things to worry about. They’re just thin skinned whiners.

  46. 46.

    L. Ron Obama

    The visual gag of the Trumped-up White House was the best. Four fucking years of “it’ll have to be called the Black House” and pictures of Obama as pimp, and in answer the president simply held up a mirror.

  48. 48.

    handy

    I’m sure Somerby will be counted on tomorrow to give Seth Myers the big “tsk tsk” for not being unserious and insufficiently grim to get the job done on progressive interests. As one stand-up comedian to the other, of course.

  49. 49.

    ppcli

    @Warren Terra: Damn. I had completely forgotten about that Cohen column. Rereading it, it is even more a pure crystal essence of Village self-importance and clueless self-absorption than I remembered. Really, it belongs in a time capsule to allow future anthropologists to understand the enabling environment of the Bush administration, as a historian might now read sycophantic poetry from minor nobles hoping to flatter Louis XIV to understand the culture of Versailles during the Ancien Régime.

  50. 50.

    Warren Terra

    @ppcli:
    his follow-up column is, if anything, worse.

    ETA The WaPo did publish at least one excellent letter:

    Richard Cohen’s scold piece about Stephen Colbert’s performance at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner [“So Not Funny,” op-ed, May 4] reminds me of the adage about the professional lady who complains about bedbugs in a brothel.
    __
    The indecorous comments of a speaker pale in comparison to the rank sight of establishment reporters gussied up in black tie and gowns to share an evening of bonhomie with Washington officials they are supposed to cover.
    __
    The Bush administration has done a masterful job of reducing its critics to passed-over employees, out-of-the-loop minor players, traitors aiding the enemy in a time of war and shrill Bush haters, to name but a few of its slurs.
    __
    The administration doesn’t need further help in the form of a commentator tut-tutting about manners like some old maiden aunt.
    __
    MARTIN LAWSON
    __
    Arlington

    PPS it’s perhaps fitting that the same publication employs Richard Cohen and, years later, thought Trump was a suitable guest for the event.

  51. 51.

    Boots Day

    In his review of the evening, Andrew Sullivan refers to a United States congressman as an “abs-laden cutie pie.” It’s almost like he’s begging people not to take him seriously.

  52. 52.

    cyd

    He had me at Optimus Prime.

    I hope Obama’s media team releases the entire intro video at some point; it looks like it was truncated.

  54. 54.

    RSA

    @Amy:

    I was thinking to myself as they were doing this, you know, the American people are really suffering and we’re all having fun at a gala and I’m a multi-millionaire.

    Fixed, for the man who’s given less to charity than Leona Helmsley.

  55. 55.

    hilts

    @Warren Terra: @ppcli:

    While I enjoyed the Trump jokes, I agree with you both on the larger point that this dinner and its companion dinners are a bad idea and wish they’d all go the way of the dinosaur. It’s also weird to see C-SPAN morph into Comedy Central.

    Maureen Dowd still has a soft spot for the WHCD:

    I miss going to the dinner. It’s revealing to hear a president give a humor speech. And I always got a lot of work done there. What’s the difference if you’re talking to sources in a parking garage, a Senate corridor or a ballroom?. As long as Washington has existed, reporters have done some of their work in social settings. You don’t drop your professional standards just because you’re wearing a cocktail dress.

    h/t http://www.politico.com/rogersimon/index_Page2.html

  56. 56.

    gex

    That joke was lifted straight from the 30 Rock Episode “Source Awards”. FWIW

  57. 57.

    hilts

    @handy:

    Bob Somerby can be counted on to insist that it’s not about race:

    The mainstream press corps fumbled and flailed. But then, there’s us, the liberal world, for whom it just has to be race… Every liberal has now memorized the most pleasing refrain in liberal politics—the refrain in which we insist that the crackpot trashing of Obama must be all about race! … Trump is one of the biggest buffoons ever allowed on the stage. But does this really have to be race?…Consider how dumb Darling Rachel was in pursuit of the pseudo-liberally mandated it-has-to-be-racism trope… Maddow started by noting that people believe a lot of dumb stuff, about a whole lot of things. Why then is it automatically racist—white supremacist!—if they believe dumb stuff about Obama along with everything else?

    http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh042911.shtml

  58. 58.

    kay

    My daughter’s reaction to all things Trump was so funny. She isn’t “political” (she votes, and describes herself as “liberal” but she really isn’t interested in any day to day way) and she just loathes the whole Trump spectacle.

    She said, perfectly seriously and concerned as hell, “why is this happening?” like we were all the victims of some natural disaster :)

  59. 59.

    Scott

    @hilts: Somerby’s main problem with the Elite Media is that he isn’t a member of them. If Fox would give him a paycheck and a regular spot on Fox and Friends, he’d transform into a loyal GOP sycophant without a moment’s regret.

    @kay: My parents have been lifelong conservative Republicans — and they’ve already told me that if Trump were to be nominated, they’d vote for Obama.

  60. 60.

    JCT

    @kay:

    She said, perfectly seriously and concerned as hell, “why is this happening?” like we were all the victims of some natural disaster :)

    That’s exactly what it feels like. With a dose of stupidy / cupidity thrown in for good measure. Hmmm, Titanic or Lusitania?

  61. 61.

    Cliff in NH

    Isn’t it F’n High-larious how John had to use the C-span feed for Seth, cause the Mediaite one cut Seth off as soon as he started insulting ryan.

    Hey John. Don’t link to Mediaite.

  62. 62.

    Suffern ACE

    @hilts: Actually, I’m guessing he’ll be fine with Seth Meyers. Did Seth Myers make fun of Donald Trump, or did he decide to run a video of some rube on youtube video and trash him for listening to Trump?

  63. 63.

    Loneoak

    Anyone else think that maybe Obama released the long form just to set up his act? That would be … unspeakably awesome.

  64. 64.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Loneoak: Yes, that thought crossed my mind about the time that Seth threw away his birth certificate jokes and he mentioned the timing of the dinner.

  65. 65.

    NineJean

    “Donald Trump says he has a great relation with ‘the Blacks,’ though unless ‘the Blacks’ are a family of white people, I bet he’s mistaken.”

    Well, late to the thread as usual…

    I have to admit, though, that I pretty much killed my keyboard on this one. Because, you see, my grandmother’s maiden name is Black (no, she wasn’t actually black, just Native Am.) and so therefore I have an enormous pile of cousins who are Black, just not black but still and nevertheless are “black”.. umm sorta, kinda, after a fashion…

    The phone tree today has been just so much fun!

  66. 66.

    Keith

    I found it interesting that the ones *not* laughing at themselves were Trump and Bill O’Reilly (and Rick Scott constantly shoooting a concerned look Trump’s way after every joke). Did Bachmann at least show an ability to laugh at herself (which is largely what the WHCD 9is about, so if you can’t take it, don’t show up or wait for another Rich Little fan to be prez)

  67. 67.

    Keith

    I found it interesting that the ones *not* laughing at themselves were Trump and Bill O’Reilly (and Rick Scott constantly shoooting a concerned look Trump’s way after every joke). Did Bachmann at least show an ability to laugh at herself (which is largely what the WHCD 9is about, so if you can’t take it, don’t show up or wait for another Rich Little fan to be prez)

  68. 68.

    vernonlee

    @L. Ron Obama:

    Totally agree w/comment about the Trumpification of White House (gold columns, Trump logo) turning it into the WH of Idiocracy. Excellent play on the racist idea that the Obamas weren’t fit for the WH and would ghetto it up.

  69. 69.

    Tim, Interrupted

    The White House Correspondents Dinner is the Village Circle Jerk Event of the Year.

    It is weird in the extreme to listen to you clueless wonders go on and on about how anything said or done at it matters in any way, other than as a diversion.

    I find it revealing that just the other day Obama lectured the press about how “we” have such serious issues before us and don’t have time for the birther “silliness.” Then he and his cronies devote an entire few days to this slobbering tribute to government/media/military/industry as one big happy revolting incestuous family. har har har

    Idiots.

  70. 70.

    Nikita

    I loved the intro. It’s like someone from the Colbert Report put it together. It was full of over the top images of “real America(ness)” punctuated with shots of the birth certificate. Watching it, I felt it came of like a giant middle finger to that meme Palin was trying so hard to establish during the campaign about Obama and his supporters not being “real” Americans.

  71. 71.

    JGabriel

    @hilts:

    With Gary Busey in his corner, the sky’s the limit for Trump.

    Someone needs to tell Busey, “Give it, Gary. He’s not gonna rehire you.”

    .

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