PLUS: Seth Meyers rips GOP Presidential hopefuls and Donald Trump...who was not amused...
By Brad Friedman on 5/1/2011, 10:50am PT  

Whatever you may think about this President, he knows how to tell a pretty good joke, especially at his own expense. He delivered again last night --- along with showing some pretty funny 'birther' videos --- at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner (or "Nerd Prom", as it's also known, though mostly only among those uninvited in the blogosphere)...

Perhaps of most note among the jokes Obama told at the expense of his potential 2012 GOP Presidential rivals, was the lack of any reference to the once-famous Sarah Palin (who was also in attendance last night.)

Similarly, in the headline set by Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers following the President's remarks, jokes about Palin were also conspicuous by their absence. On the other hand, jokes at the expense of Donald Trump, who was in the audience as well, were plentiful in both speeches, and particularly pointed during Meyers' routine. As RAW STORY's David Ferguson observed, The Donald seemed particularly unamused during Meyers' slams, though his "grim, frozen scowl throughout just adds to the viewing pleasure."

The video of Meyers headline remarks follows below...

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TRUMP: The Post Script: It seems Trump had not expected the jokes at his expense, as Politico's Patrick Gavin notes:

In what will surely go down as the night's worst prediction, Donald Trump said that he doubted that his name would come up during President Barack Obama's stand-up routine at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

"I wouldn't think [Obama] would address me" during his speech, Trump told ABC News upon arriving at the Washington Hilton.

After the dinner, reporters asked Trump his opinion of the roasting by both Obama and Meyers, as reported by New York Magazine:

When asked shortly after the speeches ended whether he liked the fusillade of jokes — which mocked his hair, TV show, real estate business and new-found birtherism — Trump searched for an answer before replying, quite seriously: "No, not really. Some were fun, but not the greatest." According to multiple guests who sat near Trump during the dinner speeches, his mood shifted from playing along to unvarnished anger.

By this morning, Trump was working on his rebound, according to Politico:

Donald Trump pushed back Sunday at President Barack Obama for making him the "focus of the evening" in his White House Correspondents' Dinner speech, and laced into Saturday Night Live comedian Seth Meyers as a "stutterer" whose delivery was lacking.

Trump's comments came in a quick phone-in to "Fox and Friends," a day after he sat almost stone-faced while the president and Meyers ripped him repeatedly, to belly laughs from the crowd. People at tables around him gaped at him watching for a reaction, and some of his tablemates wrote on Twitter that it was uncomfortable.

"Well, I really understood what I was getting into --- I didn't know that I'd be virtually the sole focus," Trump said. "I guess when you're leading in the polls that sort of thing tends to happen. But I was certainly in a certain way having a good time listening. I don't think the American people are having a good time with $5 gas. ... I was thinking to myself as they were doing this, you know, the American people are really suffering and we're all" having fun at a gala.

"I thought Seth Meyers --- his delivery frankly was not good," Trump said. "He's a stutterer."

                 

Article Categories: Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Election 2012, Donald Trump