Why Didn’t I Find the Correspondents’ Dinner Funny?
I know: I am getting old. I have become a curmudgeon. I’m what the kids in Pasco County used to call a “Wrinklebeast.” No sense of humor. Aargh!
But I have to confess that I was not amused by the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday night.
Embarrased, yes. Shocked, yes. Horrified, yes. Amused? Not on your life!
I don’t giggle when the president of the United States calls dog meat “delicious.” I squirm. Indeed, it makes me sick to my stomach.
And the tasteless “roasting” of politicians and celebrities proved equally unappetizing.
Back in the days of Pope and Johnson, literary wags were adept at using wit to shred opponents’ arguments. They were experts in the art of well-expressed malice.
But today, the wit is gone. Only the malice remains.
I did not delight in the clumsy skewering of Keith Olbermann, for example, a troubled but loyal ally of the Obama Administration. Nor do I find it hilarious to compare Newt Gingrich to the Michelin Tire logo. To me, it is rude to ridicule someone – anyone – for their weight problem, even Chris Christie, whom I abhor.
And I doubt Bill Maher will give the Obama campaign another million-dollar check anytime soon – not after being called an “asshole” by that silly Jimmy Kimmel (shown above getting a “high five” from the president).
(What’s funny about calling someone a dirty name, anyway?)
Do you find the behavior of those Secret Service agents amusing? To me, it is no joke when the most trusted law officers in the land are caught whoring and boozing in some foreign country. It’s a tragedy.
But the Washington establishment obviously thinks it’s a hoot.
I have often excused my own bad jokes by quoting Lincoln’s comment, “I laugh because I must not cry.” And I am familiar with the bromide that “laughter is the best medicine.”
But the jokes at that dinner were just plain sick. They certainly didn’t leave me feeling any better about the sorry state of affairs in this country – and the world.
As a former reporter and editor who tried very hard to be fair and diligent in practising my trade, I am insulted by the cynicism and slick sophistication the dinner displayed. It seems to imply that the corruption and dysfunction of Washington are just par for the course, that we should all just shrug it off as a big joke.
But I have news for the Washington news corps: the rest of us aren’t laughing.
For another jaundiced view of the dinner, click here.
Share this:
6 comments
Obama will do what he is told to do, if he wants to stay in that house. After the good life, it is hard to go back in the field; the sun is too hot. He is not running anything. As far as the secret service incident goes, this has always occurred; they just got caught. Remember Governor Spitsor with anti prostitute laws, come to find out he is doing the exact same thing. I will never forget how Pastor Jim Baker was thrown under the bus because of his indiscretion by his fellow Pastor Jimmy Swaggart. Story come to bump (Jamaican proverb) when he got caught and had to confess “I have sinned”.
i agree – it was NOT funny and very “unpresidential” and the cast of characters that attended – bleh
In spite of it all, the alternative would be disasterous. As far as your rhetoric is concerned, Janice, I disagree with the “house boy” bit. America has a President, not a dictator. He is elected to serve the country, not any particular race. That he makes mistakes is human nature and inevitable. Billy G.
Two contemporary media phrases apply: “Jumped the shark” and “Fail.”
Oh, come on! “it is no joke when the most trusted law officers in the land are caught whoring and boozing in some foreign country. It’s a tragedy.” It’s not a tragedy, it is business as usual. Boys will be boys, wink wink nudge nudge. For once “and only once”, I agree with Janice, they scandal is they got caught, not that they were doing this. I’m not shocked, or surprised, and I thought the little shot about curfew for the Secret Service was funny, the rest of it, that dufus Jimmy Kimmel saying you won’t be calling the Presiedent 2 terms, was rude, but that is the planners fault for picking that idiot in the first place. Overall, it was meant to amuse the asses, I meant masses at the dinner, and I am afraid that insult and inuendo and vulgarity are what pass for humour this year.
So glad I missed that ugliness.
Leave a Comment