The annual White House Correspondents’ dinner is over — an event that in recent years has been marked by controversy. And this year it most likely won’t be any different: the laugh-generating but pointed routine by actress Wanda Sykes is likely to be the subject of conservative blogs and conservative talk radio due to peppery comments about talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Each year the issue has become: has X, Y or Z (the comedian or comedienne) gone over the top? And some (depending on their party) think so. But the other question becomes: how did the President do? By most accounts, Obama showed a genuine flair for comedic timing and seemed to be really enjoying himself in a speech peppered with some great jokes:
Here’s Obama’s speech:
*Part One:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AhZq7kdFgo
*Part Two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD8ta3d2LMM
UPDATE: Here’s the Washington Post report on Obama’s speech.
To watch videos of Wanda Sykes’ comedy routine at the dinner GO HERE.
NOTE: We’ve changed the embeds here so they are consistent, removing the MSNBC one for anther CSPAN one.
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.