Judging by his performance at the 2024 White House Correspondents’ Dinner on cable television, Colin Jost better keep his day job at NBC’s Saturday Night Live since his wit was as sharp as a butterknife.
With generic observations and stale jokes, the comedian/writer’s 23-minute monologue was made duller by long pauses. Had Jost said, “pause for laughter,” his labored delivery could have been amusing considering President Biden’s recent gaff. In fact, President Obama actually prophesied this with a joke at the annual dinner back in 2009.
Unfortunately, this year’s headliner lacked the cutting relevance of previous hosts Wanda Sykes (2009) and Conan O’Brien (2013). While Jost’s SNL alums Seth Meyers (2011) and Cecily Strong (2015) candidly called out specific news organizations and anchors, he offered the blanket barb, “There are so many incredible news organizations here tonight, also a few credible ones.”
“The Washington Post is here. They were the ones taking your coats at the door,” continued Jost, borrowing Strong’s previous quip about print journalists bussing tables. Similarly, Jost’s bit about Biden using the cocaine found at the White House for his State of the Union address was already made by Greg Gutfeld on Gutfeld and The Five in March.
Although Jost grabbed at low-hanging fruit with predictable jabs at Fox News and the New York Post, nothing was said of CNN, MSNBC and, most notably, NPR which recently made news with allegations of its lopsided bias. Apparently, not all things are considered.
By contrast, 2018 host Michelle Wolf (who showed no mercy to then-President Trump and his staffers Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders) made time to note, “I watch Morning Joe every morning. We now know Mika and Joe are engaged. Congratulations you guys, it’s like when a #MeToo works out. Rachel Maddow. We cannot forget about Rachel Maddow. She’s the Peter Pan of MSNBC, but instead of never growing up, she never gets to the point.”
While at the podium, Wolf disclosed, “I have no agenda.” Too bad the same can’t be said for Jost who seemed to do more spinning than spoofing as he addressed 3,000 journalists, politicians and celebrities (including wife Scarlett Johansson) at the Washington Hilton. Perhaps that’s why there was no mention of the border, Title IX revisions, child illiteracy, student loan bailouts, and Biden’s claims of shrinkflation — all ripe for ribbing.
The closest the host came to addressing the elephant in the room (erh, the pro-Palestine/anti-Israel protestors outside the venue) was when he said, “The Correspondents’ Association provides scholarships to promising young journalism students who may one day be sent off to cover dangerous geopolitical hot spots like Columbia University.”
To his credit, Jost also cracked, “My Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che was going to join me here tonight, but in solidarity with President Biden, I decided to lose all my Black support.” With the exception of these lines and an A.I. joke, much of his material could have been written years ago: Trump is a playboy; Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders came for a hot meal; Biden is old. The president also kidded about his age, proving the old age jokes are old!
At least, Biden was frank when responding to the New York Times statement that he “actively and effectively” avoids journalists by admitting, “Hey, if that’s what it takes to get the New York Times to say I’m active and effective, I’m for it.” The president also landed a zinger at the expense of Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert. But when he switched subjects, mentioning “Lorne” [Lorne Michaels], it almost seemed as if he was still talking about Boebert. No wonder Jost teased, “It’s not easy following President Biden. I mean, it’s not always easy following what he’s saying.”
NBC’s senior White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell, who currently serves as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, told CNN, “Our dinner entertainment is most successful when it is aimed at both parties and at the national media. That is the WHCA’s intention every year.”
It’s unclear whether Biden and Jost fully understood this mission since both spent a lot of time dissing Trump. Biden decried disinformation as he distorted Trump’s quote about a bloodbath (figuratively meant for the auto industry) into the threat of a literal bloodbath. And without realizing the irony that it’s taken Biden four years to acknowledge his granddaughter Navy, Jost ended the evening by praising the president’s decency per comparisons to his late grandfather.
Although previous hosts have shown their liberal bent, Jost is the first to turn journalism’s “Nerd Prom” into a blatant presidential endorsement. While this review is not advocating for either candidate, it is a plea for smarter comedy.