TREVOR NOAH NAILS IT
WASHINGTON DC. — The Daily Show host Trevor Noah crushed it as host of Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
It was a speech that perfectly roasted those in attendance and in the news, but also closed with a robust reminder of the important role a free press plays in society and democracy.
Noah took aim at everyone — the right, the left and the media — in the first WHCA dinner since 2019.
He even poked fun at the fact that this year’s event might have been (should have been?) postponed because of Covid-19, saying:
“It is my great honour to be speaking tonight at the nation’s most distinguished super-spreader event. For real, what are we doing here?
“Did none of you learn anything from the Gridiron dinner? Like, do you read any of your own newspapers? I mean, I expect this from Sean Hannity, but the rest of you, what are you doing here?
“You guys spent the last two years telling everyone the importance of wearing masks and avoiding large indoor gatherings.
“And, the second someone offers you a free dinner you all turn into Joe Rogan. (Dr. Anthony) Fauci dropped out. That should have been a pretty big sign.
“Fauci thought it was too dangerous to come tonight. Pete Davidson thinks it’s OK. And we all went with Pete.”
If you missed it, here are some of Noah’s better lines:
“I know a lot of you are worried and, yes, it is risky making jokes these days. We all saw what happened at the Oscars. I’ve actually been a bit worried about tonight, I won’t lie. What if I make a really mean joke about Kellyanne Conway and
her husband rushes up on the stage and thanks me?”
“What I like about Ron DeSantis, is if Trump was the original Terminator, DeSantis is like the T-1000. You’re smarter than him. You’re slicker than him. You can walk down ramps. Trump said he won the election, but everyone was able to look at the numbers and see that he was wrong. That’s why Ron DeSantis is one step ahead. First you ban the maths textbooks, then nobody knows how to count the votes.”
“Think of all the journalists whose careers have been hurt by the Biden presidency. People like Daniel Dale. He used to be CNN’s fact-checker on TV every day but now there’s barely anything to check. Same for Glenn Kessler at The Washington Post. On the way here, I saw him offering four Pinocchios for a dollar. Mr President, that’s on you. What about Maggie Haberman? For four years, it was exclusives. … Now look at her. She spends all day fighting with random people on Twitter like a common political reporter.”
“Fox News is sort of like a Waffle House. It’s relatively normal in the afternoon, but as soon as the sun goes down, there’s a drunk lady named Jeanine threatening to fight every Mexican who comes in.”
“They spent $300 million on CNN+. Three hundred million. Can I be honest, CNN? I think Stanley Tucci was playing you guys. I think that dude knew exactly where Italy was and he was just going to keep searching as long as you were paying.”