In case you didn’t know. Michelle Wolf, is a comedian who hosted the 2018 Correspondent’s dinner that took place at the White House. Usually this event is a tongue in cheek, cutesy event, where the press gets to sit alongside the administration and poke fun at them.

Personally, I’ve never really been into that particular ceremony. I find it hard to imagine putting politics aside to have a wholesome chuckle with people who have implemented policies and fostered attitudes that have devastated my community. The Correspondent’s dinner makes it painfully obvious that politics isn’t personal for these people…they live surrounded by a warm cozy blanket of wealth, power, and privilege that protects them from many of the immediate dangers of irresponsible government.

So they can laugh at it light heartedly…Trump is like that plucky neighbor who won’t keep his yard neatly trimmed, or who sometimes wears his bathrobe outside while fetching the mail. Sure he may be unsightly at times, maybe even a nuisance, but to them he is ultimately nothing to get alarmed at.

The whole affair has an air of self-congratulatory social detachment that grosses me out and so I usually don’t watch.

However, when I woke up this morning my entire news feed was mad at previously underrated comedienne.  A Vanity fair article said she “bombed. Axios called her lines “vulgar anti-trump” jokes. As a Bronx chick, my bullshit spidey senses started to tingle at all the negative press. Someone doth protest too much. Why spend so much time on someone who pushed some bad comedy? Were there knock-knock jokes? Did she ask why the MAGA hat crossed the road?

I wanted to find out exactly what were the nature of these ‘bad jokes” I decided to dig a bit myself.

First what even is the Correspondents dinner? Up until this point, I thought the whole point of it was for some comedian to try to make White House laugh at itself.  It turns out that the purpose of this dinner is to entertain wealthy donors and raise money. Based on this alone, we already know that the kinds of comedy deemed acceptable for such an event will limited.

Most of the people that attend public performances of philanthropy will not be entertained by direct criticisms of establishment because they identify with the establishment.

Any Trump joke that goes deeper than the appearance of his “hair” and doesn’t that include the word “bigly” is gonna create a room full of pouty faces and champagne flavored tears.

I have seen her stand up, Michelle Wolf is hilarious, irreverent, and truthful in an almost painful way. If anyone had bothered to watch her they would have known this. Why did they even hire her if they were not ready for the heat?

Some of her lines from the night.

“ I’m never sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders..Is it Sarah Sanders, Is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is it Cousin Huckabee? Is it Auntie Huckabee? Like what’s Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Oh, I know. Aunt Coulter”

Like wow….

Did she just re-purpose an old time-y black person colloquialism to describe collective white lady feelings of frustration and betrayal? Without offending either white ladies or black people and while disguising said feelings as a question? Stunning. <Please ma’am, may I have some more?>

“He wants to give teachers guns, and I support that because then they can sell them for things they need like supplies.”

Of course, of course, yes…shots have been fired. But I ask you dear reader…where is the lie or unfunniness in that joke? Hold on-let me look for it?

Alright wait, I think I need a friend

Nope…no lies detected.

Here’s another good’un from Michelle Wolf….

“Its 2018 and I’m a woman so you can’t shut me up….unless you have Michael Cohen wire me 130,000 dollars…you can find me on Venmo under my porn star name “Reince Priebus”

Oh, snap. I simply do not have enough chestnuts to roast over this open fire.

People said she was mean. I guess the correspondents dinner has been a safe space for people that do crappy crap and don’t want to hear about it. Michelle made short and swift with that idea. From what I can tell Michelle… (pardon me let’s put some respect on her name) Ms. Wolf wasn’t there to make nice with rich people that wanted to feel coddled about the dysfunction, legally dubious, and morally grotesque things occurring in our highest office.

Her set was 15mins.  I’m sure it felt like a dog’s age for the people not used to hearing public opinion. I’m surprised anyone was even able to capture audio from the night over what must have been the deafening sounds of uncomfortable chair shifting and rapid napkin folding and unfolding.

So what’s with all the hub-bub?

Seems like this a pretty open and shut case to me…. Media holds event to keep up good relationship with white house and white house adjacent big wigs. Ms. Wolf feels no loyalty toward either group and makes jokes at their expense that are at once true, scathing, and hilarious. Everyone gets uncomfortable and the media publicly chastises her in an attempt to grovel to the White House for future access. The fact that the response was so swift and unified from both right and left leaning news outlets further supports the point.

For 15mins, Ms. Wolf made the politics struggle extra real for the corporations and people that have profited from the public circus in DC. And this was probably the first time politics was anything other than a spectator sport for most of them. Were they disgusted? Were they shocked? Where they ashamed? Were they outraged? Did they have to emotionally struggle to get through what they heard from the podium? Good…maybe now they know what the last 15 months has been like for the rest of us.

*The opinions and ideas expressed are solely those of the author, and may not reflect the opinions of The Bronx Brand*




SemiDryWhite is from the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx. Living in the Bronx has inspired her to be a voice for people that might not otherwise have one. It also allows her to see the world with a bit of skepticism and detached humor that helps the craziness of life be more palatable. She finds inspiration in the realness of the Bronx, because even thought many people struggle they also live with pride.

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