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2nd UPDATE: Here is video of Wanda Sykes’ performance in its entirety.
Part One…
Part Two…
UPDATE: I’ve been to the White House Correspondents Dinner. And, if history is any judge, then comedians asked to perform there seem to do best when they joke with gentle jibes rather than go for the jugular. Someone should have reminded Wanda Sykes about that before tonight. Because not since Don Imus roughed up Bill Clinton at the annual event has a comedian been so mean-spirited. Certainly, Stephen Colbert wasn’t to George W Bush. But, unlike Imus or Colbert, Wanda Sykes didn’t lay a glove on the sitting president Barack Obama. Instead, she reserved her barbs for people who weren’t there: Dubya, John McCain, Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. I’m not saying pols and media don’t deserve to have the piss taken out of them. But even watching the WHCA dinner on television, viewers saw the room grew very quiet and then erupt as Sykes seemed to cross the line with what was more harsh partisanship than funny comedy. At one point, the C-SPAN cameras caught Fox News commentator Glenn Beck sitting stone-faced after Sykes had singled out one conservative after another for her insults. Even Obama seemed to look uncomfortable at times. Of course, the WHCA had to know what they were getting since Sykes has gone on late night television being just as outspoken. Which is why, when she was announced as the performer, I wondered why the journalists had chosen her unless they wanted her to cause controversy, which she certainly did tonight.
Sykes started off speaking admiringly of first Barack Obama and then wife Michelle, and lobbed gently funny softballs their way … about Obama’s basketball prowess … and Michelle’s bare arms … and their history-making presidency. (“This is amazing, you’re the first black president. I’m proud to be able to say. But that’s unless you screw up. And then it’s going to be, ‘What’s up with that half-white guy? Who voted for the mulatto. What the hell?’ “) She also poked fun at Nancy Pelosi, saying it was the House Speaker’s idea for Obama and VP Joe Biden to grab hamburgers for lunch the other day. (“You guys can’t hang out out together. What’d she say, ‘Why don’t you boys go out and get a bite’? You know she was a Hillary supporter.”)
But the comedian’s tone changed dramatically when she went after former President George W Bush. “I gotta say, he broke a lot of stuff. You thought you were moving into a new home, and you’ve got a fixer-upper. And there are a lot of things that need to be fixed.” About the criticism Obama received from animal rights activists concerning his choice of a pedigreed pup,” Sykes said, “The man has to rescue a country that’s been abused by its previous owner. Let him have a dog.”
On the subject of Dick Cheney, Sykes commented, “Oh my god, that’s a scary man. Scares me to death. I tell my kids if two cars pull up, and one has a stranger, and the other car has Dick Cheney, you get in the car with the stranger.” And she criticized the former VP for “trying to defend torture”.
Sykes was at her most vicious on the subject of Rush Limbaugh. ”Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails. That’s like saying, ‘I hope America fails.’ Or that ‘I dont care if people are losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.’ He just wants the country to fail. To me, that’s treason. He’s not saying anything differently than what Osama Bin Laden is saying.” Then, turning to the president, Sykes added, “You might want to look into this, sir. Because I think maybe he was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on Oxycontin that he missed his flight.”
Realizing she shocked the crowd with that remark, she said, “Too much? But you’re laughing on the inside…”
But she wasn’t done. “Rush Limbaugh [says] ‘I hope the country fails.” I hope his kidneys fail. How about that? He needs some waterboarding, that’s what he needs.”
On the subject of Sean Hannity, Sykes noted that the Fox News commentator has offered to be waterboarded for charity. ”Let Keith Olbermann waterboard him. He can”t take a waterboarding. I can break Sean Hannity just by giving him a middle seat in coach.” Now I personally find that last line extremely funny.
But I do think her overall performance was inappropriate for the room, and I say that as a liberal Democrat. Sykes herself was prescient when she began her performance with these remarks: “This is truly an honor to be here. It really is. I keep getting asked the same question, ‘Are you nervous? Are you nervous?’ With this administration, what is there to be nervous about? If I do a good job, I get great press. If I screw it up royally, Tim Geithner gives me a bonus.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Politics should be non-partisan but humor should just be funny. 80% of Wanda’s jokes tonight were great. Her performance was a hit.
Wanda Sykes was hilarious! I’m sorry that you think that just because she’s in a room with a bunch of uptight stiffs who like to be told their crap doesn’t stink she has to step on eggshells. Welcome to Democracy. Some people need to be called out on their b.s., and Sykes did it in a way that made people in the REAL WORLD laugh their butts off.
wow, I guess some people can’t take a joke. And to say it was one-sided. For pete’s sake, she referred to Obama as mulatto.
Rush, Hannity and other entertainers who engage in the vicious, hate-spewing rhetoric that they do, can’t really be offended when the hard-hitting stuff comes back at them. I seem to recall some pretty un-repeatable names that Rush has had for female politicians for instance.
If Bush can joke about not finding nukes in the country he tricked us into invading, the country where we tortured people, killed hundreds of thousands and put our troops in harm’s way and spent billions of dollars, then i think a few tough jokes at the expense of his team’s ego is perfectly acceptable.
If Rush and Hannity can spout every day about how it’s nothing to torture people, they ought to be able to take a joke. Sheesh.
Rush Limbaugh never said he wants the country to fail, he said that he believed if Obama succeeded with his vision of the country it’d destroy us. But as a liberal people often believe what they want to. Facts don’t matter. It doesn’t matter to them that there should never be such a thing as consensus science. The Geneva Convention doesn’t apply to terrorists, but they don’t care…they just make up the fact that it does. And Bush and Cheney did not “hand out candy like torture” but they don’t care. They don’t care that 99 percent of Obama’s military policies are the same as Bush. That’s why I left the left, it’s not a real place to be. Don’t you find it a little scary that you can’t question or joke about your President? That’s the one good thing about Sykes’ routine…she questioned authority as she has the right to do.
Wanda Sykes killed tonight! I thought that this was the second most hilarious performance at the Correspondents dinner ever, right behind Colbert. Both of them rocked because they both took on the leader of the Republican party with no holds barred – brilliant political comedy in both instances. Go Wanda!
i don’t know what you were watching, but it wasn’t wanda sykes. her shit went over extremely well, and it was hilarious. the president looked pleased, as did everyone else.
maybe you were posting what you thought was going to happen, instead of what actually did. weird.
I have always laughed at these WHCD dinners, whether it was *my* guy being lauded or not. But, death wishes and personal threats are now populous thoughts that are applauded? That aside, I thought throwing Hillary under the bus was misogynist as well. FFS, you guys won, are you gonna be sore winners for 4 years?
some of her jokes were an ouch moment. I loved her joke about Biden big mouth and Rush’s stupidity. WHCD invites people who will make everyone uncomfortable with little home truth no one is willing to state publicly and having her there did the job. She’s not as good as Colbert, who practically humiliated Bush and Chaney few yrs back, but she was pretty good.
I wish she made more fun about the tax cheat and bankrupt bankers and car companies.
She was hysterical…and the crowd was roaring…you need to rewatch it…the Palin line is going to get played over and over again…
The problem is that there are very few professional journalists left (Nikki being an acceptation). While it use to be that tele-journalists were just that, most are now former “communications” majors or worse – failed actors. The result is a media filled with and run by personalities infatuated with themselves and celebrity. They are equally unwilling and unable to honestly report. As such, overtly partisan “news” (from both sides) is the norm, while objectivity has become all but extinct. Kudos to Nikki for calling it what it was, as I’m sure that by Sunday morning, the vast majority of the media will be fawning over Ms. Sykes’s performance (funny as it was). The monolithic praise will debut on MTP and then quickly migrate across the rest of the talking-head spectrum.
I thought she was great! She spoke the truth, and if it made some people uncomfortable, then maybe they need to look into their own guilty concience!
Limbaugh comment hilarious and in my opinion harsh but I thought worse when he said he wished the country failed.
He never said that and people who keep repeating that line are LYING because it is well known that he said he hopes “Obama fails” and he clarified that by saying he hoped the policies he feels are harmful to the country fails.
He NEVER said he wanted the country to fail. Stop acting like a 4th grader.
Wanda Sykes’ parents should be ashamed of someone so vicious and cruel – to wish death on others?? And she thinks she’s a comedian?? She’s just low-class trash masquerading as a human being.
she was very funny .
“Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck have been saying extremely hateful,”
Have they ever wished bodily harm on someone?
I’ve never heard it. Just imagine the reaction if Limbaugh said he wanted someone’s kidneys to fail. That’s despicable.
Calling someone the “20th hijacker” and making fun of their substance abuse? Way, way too harsh for that event.
Really weak performance by Sykes. Only a couple of funny lines in the whole performance. The Obama ass kissing was why she was booked, so that’s expected.
Extreme but not really funny. Anyone can be extreme but is takes talent to be funny. Apparently she has no talent. Granted, Obama is still enjoying his honeymoon and is about as interesting as a pair of socks.
OMG that was hysterical! Thank you Mr. President – you can always do standup comedy when you’re done fixing the chaos that you’ve inherited.
Wanda – YOU ROCK! OMG wish I coulda come up with some of those jokes – they were hysterical. Should have had a “warning” on the tables – go to the potty before POTUS and Wanda start!
Good show and yeah, sometimes the truth hurts. But the truth sets us all free
OK, some unnecessary roughness there. But all true – Limbaugh’s statement, for one, and who wouldn’t choose the car with a stranger over a car with Dick Cheney?
Usually I like balance, too. But the last administration and Limbaugh’s statement of treason embarrassed every diehard, loyal Republican that I know. It isn’t that there isn’t a case to be made for a genuinely conservative perspective on many issues. There is. But it is hard to see the legitimate conservative side in the actions of the last group of people who held power. They brought a great country to the brink of disaster and erased too many of our civil liberties. As uncomfortable as it is to hear a one-sided comedic rant, it was pretty accurate.
wanda was absolutely spot on, hilarious, and very witty with her remarks. Going after Rush is brave and I think it had to be done. She made fun of the fanatical and insane right wing press for their real out of line comments. She was not out of line or inappropriate.
Wanda was hilarious. I absolutely agree that Rush is guilty of treason, he wants America to fail, he does. And, he is trying his best to make it happen.
Wanda tells it like it is and if you can’t handle it then STFU and go hide like the cowards you are. Cheney, Hannity, O’Reilly, you should try a real waterboarding by a Pakistani or an Iraqi, then tell me it’s not torture.
It’s about time someone in the entertainment business grew a pair and started speaking truth to power. It’s ironic it is a black woman with frizzy hair. Bravo Wanda, do it again real soon. Where has Hollywood been when we needed them for the past eight years? Sucking at the teat of conspicuous consumption.
Wanda was a hundred times better than watching that A-hole David Gregory doing a psuedo-hiphop act with Karl “it’s the math” Rove. What dipwads those two are!
I am sorry, but there was not that much that was funny. All she did was pick up the low hanging fruit. Heck, I think that fruit had been lying rotten on the ground for months.
Go Wanda! It’s about time someone said what most people are really thinking! Speaking truth to power.
Wanda did lay a glove on the President: She said she was happy to have a Black man as President, even if he was only half Black….. but if he messed up anywhere, as far as she was concerned, Obama was half WHITE!!!
How much you willing to bet that the same Kenny taking Republicans to task for “saying extremely hateful, mean-spirited things for years” wasn’t even batting an eyelash when his liberal brethren drew comparisons between George W. Bush and Adolph Hitler?
Man, I don’t care who you are, wishing people dead as did “FormelyanotherWGAR” above is indefensible., The terrible language anonymous uses is also indicative of the low character of many of the other commentators here. As for the “liberal” use (pun intended) of the words “hate speech” of the RL and SH…I am certain RL meant he wants Hussein Obama’s socialist policies to fail. I think a better understanding of free market economics would better serve those that disagree. If Hussein continues interfering with our system, it will fail certainly. And if one is naive enough to think that a successful radio personality who derives his income from America, wants America to fail, you have to examine yor improbable and flawed logic. Please don’t be so aweful in the future, and if you term other’s opinions “hate Speech” everytime you disagree, remind us when we apply the same standard to you in 2010 after election changes, and culminating two years later with the conclusion of America’s first successful single term American-Kenyan President.