Colin Jost, co-anchor of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment and husband to actress Scarlett Johansson, was an entertainer at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday. His 20-minute set was filled with jokes made at the expense of President Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and the journalists in attendance.
Jost began by saying he “was excited to be up here on stage with President Biden tonight, mostly to see if I could figure out where Obama was pulling the strings from.” He then joked that it was “not easy following President Biden. I mean, it’s not always easy following what he’s saying.”
Jost then took a jab at twice-impeached Trump, saying it was“refreshing to see a president of the United States at an event that doesn’t begin with a bailiff saying, ‘All rise.'”
“We are all here tonight at nerd prom,” he said. “Well, Matt Gaetz is at regular prom.”
He then moved on to some of the media in attendance, including nobody’s favorite, Fox News.
“Fox news is here tonight. It’s the end of an era. Rupert Murdoch stepped down at Fox News, which is strange. I didn’t think there was a ‘step down’ from Fox News,” Jost said.
He did a good job touching on the realities of Biden’s and Trump’s ages.
“I’m not saying both candidates are old, but, you know, Jimmy Carter is out there thinking I could maybe win this thing,” he said.
His next couple of jokes relied on the absurdity of our modern political situation.
“So let me see if I can summarize where this race stands at this moment,” he began. “The Republican candidate for president owes half a billion in fines for bank fraud, and is currently spending his days farting himself awake during a porn star hush money trial, and the race is tied????”
He continued: ”Nothing makes sense anymore. The candidate who is a famous New York City playboy took abortion rights away. And the guy who’s trying to give you your abortion rights back is an 80-year-old Catholic. How does that make sense?”
Jost went on to lament the decline of print journalism, but he also acknowledged new opportunities in other industries.
“It is the best time in history to be a courtroom sketch artist. My God, the most famous man on Earth is on trial, and there’s no cameras allowed. Just the artists, their pastels, and their desire to make Trump look as bad as possible.” he said. “Every sketch of Trump looks like the Grinch had sex with the Lorax.”
Jost ended his set with a moving tribute to his late grandfather. He addressed much of this directly to Biden, saying that his grandfather chose to vote for him in his last election “because you’re a decent man.”
“My grandpa voted for decency.”
Campaign Action