President Obama again showed at the White House Correspondence Dinner Saturday night that he's not just the smartest guy in the room, he's also the funniest. Larry Wilmore didn't come close in my view and the view of many others. Certainly Wilmore got nowhere Obama's laughs in the room.
He started out on fire:
“It’s an honor to be at my last, and perhaps the last, correspondents’ dinner. You all look great; the end of the republic has never looked better,” he said, kicking off his remarks Saturday night at the 102nd annual event, which brings together journalists, politicians and celebrities for a dinner and celebration at the Washington Hilton."
He started out on fire:
“It’s an honor to be at my last, and perhaps the last, correspondents’ dinner. You all look great; the end of the republic has never looked better,” he said, kicking off his remarks Saturday night at the 102nd annual event, which brings together journalists, politicians and celebrities for a dinner and celebration at the Washington Hilton."
“It’s my eighth and final appearance at this unique event. I am excited. If this material works well, I’m going to use it at Goldman Sachs next year. Earn me some serious Tubmans,” he said, jabbing Hillary Clinton, before slinging other barbs at Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg and Reince Priebus.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/white-house-correspondents-dinner-barack-obama-222676#ixzz47VU7CROx
You can watch the speech here on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA5ezR0Kh80
I actually read that as a jab at Bernie for trying to make such a big issue out of it. Obama might well do paid speeches for all you know. I believe Michelle Obama does plan to do just that. In any case, it was a good one and he did hit Hil a few times and she was a good sport about it:
"@potus Nice job last night. Aunt Hillary approves. #WHCD -H"
https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/726846774250471425
He did make a clear pro Hillary joke as well:
"Next year a new President will be standing here, and it's anyone's guess who she will be.'
He called out The Bern:
'I'm a little hurt you've been distancing yourself from me a little. That's just not something that you do to your Comrade.'
What we also learnt is Larry Wilmore is not as funny as Obama. He seemed to me to be trying too hard. Some of his lines were good. I thought the joke that he approves of Obama's policies 'as long as he's still black.'
But thought he overcompensated on some of them. He got some negative pushback on using the N word-he did say 'Nigga' rather than the real N-word: 'Nigger.'
'Nigga' is a kind of neologism that many in the black community came to use-I seem to remember it starting maybe 15 to 18 years ago. It was a case of black folks trying to take the ultimate disempowering word and make it empowering.
However, in more recent years some have questioned even the word 'Nigga.'
I noticed that on black Twitter there was some debate whether or not it's cool for Wilmore to say that.
Jamil Smith seems to think it comes down to this: black folks can say it if they want to, white folks definitely can't say it.
Others like Van Jones and this author here believe no one should use it, period.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/larry-wilmore-dropping-n-word-president-not-funny-article-1.2620813
My simple rule is this: I don't use it, whatever anyone else does. It's the best way to keep out of trouble!
It seems to me that if the real point is black folks want to make sure white folks never have permission to use this word then simply banning it is less ambiguous than saying 'We can use it but you can't.'
But I'm not telling anyone else what to do. Just that sometimes simple rules are better-mine is I don't use it.
P.S. For me, besides the issue of the N word, I didn't think Wilmore was that funny. I just feel his humor here was in many places a little too blunt-not subtle enough. There is a dryness to Obama's humor that makes it work.
This is not a question of being too tough or more gentle. You can hit hard but in a more subtle way. So I just found Wilmore a little wide of the mark.
You want subtlety-start with Stephen Colbert 2006 roasting W. That was one for the ages.
UPDATE: Al Shartpon gives Wilmore's 'nigga moment' a thumbs down
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-whcd-sharpton-larry-wilmore-20160430-story.html
Jonathan Capehart thinks he said 'nigger', not 'nigga.' I had thought he said nigga.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/white-house-correspondents-dinner-barack-obama-222676#ixzz47VU7CROx
You can watch the speech here on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA5ezR0Kh80
I actually read that as a jab at Bernie for trying to make such a big issue out of it. Obama might well do paid speeches for all you know. I believe Michelle Obama does plan to do just that. In any case, it was a good one and he did hit Hil a few times and she was a good sport about it:
"@potus Nice job last night. Aunt Hillary approves. #WHCD -H"
https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/726846774250471425
He did make a clear pro Hillary joke as well:
"Next year a new President will be standing here, and it's anyone's guess who she will be.'
He called out The Bern:
'I'm a little hurt you've been distancing yourself from me a little. That's just not something that you do to your Comrade.'
What we also learnt is Larry Wilmore is not as funny as Obama. He seemed to me to be trying too hard. Some of his lines were good. I thought the joke that he approves of Obama's policies 'as long as he's still black.'
But thought he overcompensated on some of them. He got some negative pushback on using the N word-he did say 'Nigga' rather than the real N-word: 'Nigger.'
'Nigga' is a kind of neologism that many in the black community came to use-I seem to remember it starting maybe 15 to 18 years ago. It was a case of black folks trying to take the ultimate disempowering word and make it empowering.
However, in more recent years some have questioned even the word 'Nigga.'
I noticed that on black Twitter there was some debate whether or not it's cool for Wilmore to say that.
Jamil Smith seems to think it comes down to this: black folks can say it if they want to, white folks definitely can't say it.
Others like Van Jones and this author here believe no one should use it, period.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/larry-wilmore-dropping-n-word-president-not-funny-article-1.2620813
My simple rule is this: I don't use it, whatever anyone else does. It's the best way to keep out of trouble!
It seems to me that if the real point is black folks want to make sure white folks never have permission to use this word then simply banning it is less ambiguous than saying 'We can use it but you can't.'
But I'm not telling anyone else what to do. Just that sometimes simple rules are better-mine is I don't use it.
P.S. For me, besides the issue of the N word, I didn't think Wilmore was that funny. I just feel his humor here was in many places a little too blunt-not subtle enough. There is a dryness to Obama's humor that makes it work.
This is not a question of being too tough or more gentle. You can hit hard but in a more subtle way. So I just found Wilmore a little wide of the mark.
You want subtlety-start with Stephen Colbert 2006 roasting W. That was one for the ages.
UPDATE: Al Shartpon gives Wilmore's 'nigga moment' a thumbs down
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-whcd-sharpton-larry-wilmore-20160430-story.html
Jonathan Capehart thinks he said 'nigger', not 'nigga.' I had thought he said nigga.
They should have had John Oliver do it. In fact I heard that Oliver was doing it somewhere and was looking forward to that... when I saw I was wrong and it was going to be Wilmore, I was disappointed. Wilmore is OK as a comedian, but I was thinking that Oliver could have rivaled Colbert... perhaps even outdo him.
ReplyDeleteOliver is very funny, agreed.
ReplyDeleteI never watch anything live anymore. So when I called my dad on Saturday night (was it?) I was surprised that he and his wife were in the middle of watching the correspondent's dinner... not surprised that he was watching it live (that's pretty much all they do), but that they were watching it at all (did I ever mention how old my dad is? Did I mention he's been a Republican (in spirit anyway -- he may have been too young to vote) since Calvin Coolidge??)... he said "with that Comedy Central guy as host" ... and I blurted out "John Oliver?" ... and he said "Yeah." It wasn't until after I let him get back to it that I found it was Wilmore.
ReplyDeleteI should ask him how he liked it. It sounds like Obama killed it (I read an account after the fact).