“And then of course there’s Donald Trump. Donald Trump has been saying he will run for President as a Republican, which is surprising since I just assumed he was running as a joke,” so begins Seth Meyers’ string of jokes about Donald Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. This sequence of jokes are said to have inspired his run for president in 2012 and then again in 2016, a race which he won.
Since 1983, the White House Correspondents’ have traditionally hosted a comedian that roasts the press, the president, and the president’s administration. Since then, only two presidents have failed to attend these dinners. The first being Ronald Reagan, because he was recovering from an assassination attempt, and the second being Donald Trump.
Comedy’s role in this dinner serves not to entertain the audience, but to hold the audience accountable. I am reminded of the infamous 2006 Correspondents’ Dinner that Stephen Colbert hosted in character as the right-wing pundit from his then Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report. His set caused such a stir that members of the Bush administration and the press core walked out.
This is the purpose of a roast. It both humanizes and pokes fun at those in power. Though the roast also requires an underlying current of good faith. We now find ourselves in a time that is truly unprecedented. Traditions, protocol, and the whole unspoken rule book has been tossed out of the window. The press core and this administration are openly hostile towards one another (save for FOX news). There is no good faith between the two entities.
This year, the second in a row without Trump present, featured comedian Michelle Wolf. Controversy arose after Wolf made comments surrounding White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Wolf was condemned and accused of attacking Sanders’ appearance by most of the right wing, and by Trump himself. Reporters and members of the press core also attacked her roast, one New York Times reporter congratulated Sanders on Twitter for not walking out of the dinner,
“That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive.”
–@maggieNYT
Many more misinterpreted the roast, claiming that Wolf attacked Sanders’ weight and appearance, when in fact she attacked Sanders’ proclivity towards lying, “I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful. She burns facts, and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”
Even the White House Correspondents’ Association issued a statement condemning Wolf, “Last night’s program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people… Unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of that mission.”
The fact of the matter remains, Wolf is a comedian. Comedians are not meant to unite a press and White House administration at war, they are not meant to bring about world peace, and it is not their job to always be respectful. They are meant to make people laugh. They tell jokes to make the larger masses feel a little less afraid, a little less worried. As Stephen Colbert always says, “You cannot laugh and be afraid at the same time, and the devil cannot stand mockery.”
For now, maybe a comedian is not the best option for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, maybe the dinner itself is not even the best option in this political climate. This is no fault of Michelle Wolf’s, and she should not be blamed for it, as she has done no crime other than literally doing her job, and maybe speaking some truth to power.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is a strange and unnecessary tradition in a time of no tradition. For now, comedy should still be used to tell the truth and make us a little more fearless. Journalism should do the same. However, maybe the two should be mutually exclusive.