Laugh-in
The White House Correspondents annual dinner is one of the rites of spring in Washington. Journalists and their guests get all gussied up to hear the president crack a few jokes — and then wait with baited breath to see whether the professional comic for the evening crosses any lines during their performance.
This year’s dinner was no different. President Barack Obama made the predictable comedic passes: at his dependence on a teleprompter, wife Michelle’s guns (arms) and the Washington press corps’ leftward lean — “Most of you covered me, all of you voted for me” — which for its near-truth quality barely qualified as humor.
Then funny woman Wanda Sykes showed the president how it’s done. Or not done. By the time people got back to work on Monday some of Sykes’ riffs were drawing penalty flags. She called talk radio right-winger Rush Limbaugh the 20th hijacker and said she hoped his kidneys would fail. Limbaugh can take care of himself (and no doubt welcomed the controversy because it means r-a-t-i-n-g-s). But the White House backpedaled, saying 9/11 isn’t appropriate territory for humor, even though still photos and video captured Obama laughing at Sykes’ bit.
Sykes and Limbaugh can take the heat. In fact, they revel in it. Obama’s certainly capable of handling it as well, though he’s probably figured out there’s a different standard for what can crack up a president in public, no matter how funny it may seem at the time.
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