The Best White House Correspondents’ Dinner Jokes of All Time
Newly named host Hasan Minhaj has some big shoes to fill.
Yuri Gripas / Reuters
Will Hasan Minhaj live up to his predecessors?
The stakes are high for the newly named White House Correspondents Dinner host, who currently serves as the senior Indian correspondent for “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.” He follows comedy greats Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Wanda Sykes, to name a few. As we eagerly await “nerd prom,” which President Donald Trump has said he will not attend, let’s take a look at the best jokes from Correspondents’ Dinner hosts past.
Jimmy Kimmel to Barack Obama (2012)
“Americans are in terrible shape. You can even tell how out of shape we are by the way we protest. We used to march. Now we occupy.”
Seth Meyers to Barack Obama (2011)
“Donald Trump said recently that he has a great relationship with ‘the blacks,’ though unless ‘the blacks’ are a family of white people, I bet he’s mistaken.”
Wanda Sykes to Barack Obama (2009)
“I’m proud to be able to say that—‘the first black president.’ Well, that’s unless you screw up. And then it’s gonna be, ‘What’s up with the half-white guy, huh?’”
Stephen Colbert to George W. Bush (2006)
“I know there’s some polls out there saying that this man has a 32-percent approval rating. But guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in ‘reality.’ And reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
Jon Stewart to Bill Clinton (1997)
“Isn’t that what the confirmation process is in Washington? Weeding out the truly qualified until you get the truly available?”
And, well, he’s not a host, but here’s an honorable mention to former President Obama.
Barack Obama (2016)
"In my final year, my approval ratings keep going up. The last time I was this high, I was trying to decide on my major."