As someone who works in entertainment, I love to study comedians’ timing — from Jack Benny, to Larry David, to Gary Sandler, to Ricky Gervais. And trust me when I say that one of the evolutions we’ve seen in Barack Obama over the years of his presidency is his mastery of comic timing. To be sure, when Obama attends the White House Correspondents’ Dinner he is reading jokes written for him by professional comedy writers. But anyone can read a script or do a serviceable job with it. Obama has mastered timing.
This year, his jokes about Donald Trump (who didn’t attend) were the most anticipated — and he did not fail to deliver.
His “roast” at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is as wonderfully delivered as it is written. Politico offers his top ten jokes HERE. And you can read the full transcript HERE.
But watch for yourself and make your own judgement. Here’s his “set” in full:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpbEg-zVcpU
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.