Michelle Wolf joins Larry Wilmore, Seth Meyers, and Stephen Colbert on the list of comics to ruffle feathers at the White House correspondents’ dinner.
Comedian Michelle Wolf kicked up controversy Saturday evening at the White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington, DC. Her jokes about White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders quickly became a point of contention online.
Wolf, a former Daily Show correspondent and host of an upcoming Netflix late-night show, skewered Sanders as the press secretary sat just a few seats away from her onstage. Wolf compared Sanders to Aunt Lydia — a fearsome character from the dystopian Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale who re-educates women into subjugation and enforces strict punishment on them — and drew attention to the press secretary’s lying, saying she was an “Uncle Tom for white women.”
Here’s what Wolf said:
A number of journalists online jumped to Sanders’ defense.
“That [Sanders] sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive,” the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman wrote.
“Lots of critics but she has always been decent and professional to me — if not entirely forthcoming (and I don’t expect any press secretary to be!),” wrote Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post.
And there was plenty more criticism where that came from as well.
Others said to cut it out with the pearl clutching.
“They call you liars. They call Mexicans rapists. They call Muslims murderers. They support white supremacists. But someone calls them out on what they do, & suddenly they’re heroes for not walking out,” actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani replied to Haberman’s tweet.
Former Obama aide and Pod Save America co-host Jon Favreau pointed out Wolf mentioned the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan — and those remarks were largely ignored.
Wolf also responded to Haberman. “Hey mags! All these jokes were about her despicable behavior. Sounds like you have some thoughts about her looks though?”
She also thanked former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer for his assessment the dinner was a “disgrace.”
President Donald Trump, who for the second consecutive year did not attend the dinner, said that the dinner was a very “big boring bust” and that the “so-called comedian really ‘bombed.’”
That Wolf’s remarks ruffled some feathers isn’t particularly surprising — the correspondents’ dinner entertainer nearly always manages to make someone mad. Remember 2016, when Larry Wilmore called former President Barack Obama “ my nigga ?” Or what about 2006, when Stephen Colbert delivered his entire speech in his Colbert Report character? Or 2011, when Obama’s and Seth Meyers ’ jokes about then-reality TV star and birther Donald Trump were so cutting they allegedly spurred him to run for office?
Hasan Minhaj, a senior correspondent on the Daily Show who performed at last year’s correspondents’ dinner, caused a stir as well. In an interview with former US attorney Preet Bharara at a conference in Manhattan on Thursday, Minhaj talked about one joke — where he repeated over and over that he did “not see Steve Bannon” until he arrived at “ Nazi Steve Bannon” — that “a lot of people online…did not like.” He said he doesn’t regret it. “My rule is I will make fun of your character over things you can control, so I will be cutting, not cruel,” he said in a sit-down at the CAFE Change Summit, which Bharara hosted.
Minhaj tweeted his support for Wolf ahead of her set on Saturday and later in the evening retweeted her response to Spicer’s tweet.
It is also worth noting that the White House correspondents’ dinner usually sparks a debate about the media and its coziness with the White House. Journalists are supposed to have an adversarial relationship with those in power, but at the White House, they have to toe a fine line to maintain their access as well. Every year, people are upset about the dinner because they see it as elites hobnobbing with one another.
Wolf called out the media on Saturday as well. She pointed out that despite how outraged many in the press say they are about Trump, he also has been a boon to the business, and that the media coverage of his campaign is a big part of why he was elected.
Wolf spoke for nearly 20 minutes on Saturday evening and touched on a wide range of issues, including the Democratic Party, Kellyanne Conway, abortion, and the financial crisis. Here are a handful of some of her other lines:
Judging by the number of outraged tweets, it’s clear that Wolf struck a nerve — which is the point. “After Trump got elected, women started knitting those pussy hats. When I first saw them, I was like, ‘That’s a pussy?’ I guess mine just has a lot more yarn on it,” Wolf said a few minutes into her set. “You should have done more research before you got me to do this.”
