Wednesday, April 29, 2015

2015 White House Correspondents Dinner

Saturday night the White House Correspondents' Association hosted their annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, attended by journalists from news sources across the country. Viewers and attendees alike each year look forward to the "performance" piece of the event, which has evolved to play out in many cases as a comedic roast. This year's roast was hosted by Cecily Strong, comedian and cast member on Saturday Night Live. As in the rest of the political sphere, the WHCD and performance are male dominated. Until 1930, women weren't even allowed to attend the dinner. The first female solo performer was not until 1992 when Paula Poundstone presented. With the opportunity to host this year's event, the expectations and pressures were high for Strong- and she more than came through, the nailed it! Nothing was off limits for Strong, whose jokes touched on everything from race relations, women's equality, international relations, journalism, political scandal, the 2016 presidential election and much more. Here are a few of our favorite jokes from the night:

  • "Feels right to have a woman follow President Obama, doesn't it?"
  • "It feels so weird to be up here. And, OK, I promise, since I'm only a comedian, I'm not going to try and tell you politicians how to do politics or whatever. That's not my job. That would be like you guys telling me what to do with my body. I mean, can you even imagine? Crazy."
  • “Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m gonna go easy on you people. I’m gonna go easy on you people because my brain is smaller.”
  • “This year a representative from Hobby Lobby said they didn’t want to pay for employees’ health care if it covered things like contraceptives — which is weird because all I asked him is, ‘What aisle is the yarn in?'"
  • Strong asked all journalists in the room raise their right arm and repeat, "I solemnly swear not to talk about Hillary’s appearance because that is not journalism.” 
Thanks Cecily for a great roast and using this opportunity to address gender inequality! 

Posted by MWPC at 2:02 PM