It begins with some well deserved high praise for journalists and photographers who are on location in the most dangerous places in the world to report the news. Some have been in imprisoned and others have died. The First Amendment of our Constitution, guarantees the freedom of speech, and while there are some exceptions, like defamation, the right to criticize officials of our government is absolute.
Now, the last 30 minutes or so are the “goodies” where we find out how well President Biden can be funny. Let me make this clear, both Presidents Bush and Obama excelled in this effort. Bush delivered some beauties, which I call side winder missiles, because you just don’t see them coming.
Best line from Biden was: “I had a lot of Ron DeSantis jokes ready, but Mickey Mouse beat the hell out of me and got to them first.” This of course refers to the current feud between DeSantis and Disney. This was followed up by: “I can’t be too rough on the guy. After his reelection as governor he was asked if he had a mandate. He said, ‘Hell no, I’m straight.’ I’ll give you time to think that one through. You got it?”
I particularly liked: “Last year, your favorite Fox reporters were able to attend because they were fully vaccinated and boosted. This year, with that $787 million settlement, they’re here because they can’t say no to a free meal.”
It was followed up with “And hell, I’d call Fox ‘honest, fair and truthful.’ But then I’d be sued for defamation!”
Comedian Roy Wood, Jr then stepped up to the podium, and opened with “Real quick, Mr. President, I think you left some of your classified documents up here. … I’ll put them in a safe place, he don’t know where to keep them.”
Roy Wood’s best line of the night, by far: “When the retirement age went up two years to 64 [in France] they rioted because they didn’t want to work till 64. Meanwhile in America, we have an 80-year-old man begging us for four more years of work.”
“I’m not fixing to have Dominion on my ass! I love Dominion. As a matter of fact, let me just say it right now: My favorite voting machine is Dominion voting machines. When I go to the polls, I make sure it is a Dominion machine that I use. If your election needs the truth, put Dominion in your booth! I ain’t fixing to get sued!”
I stop here, as you can watch the whole show on Youtube, or get pieces of the monologues from the Internet.
Link from Vulture: Roy Wood Jr.’s Best Jokes at the 2023 White House Correspondents’ Dinner
Youtube has many of the speeches made by former presidents. Trump is the only president in recent times who would not attend the dinner.
Stay tuned,
Dave
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