At last night's star-studded White House Correspondents' Dinner, Donald Trump (who seems to require press more than oxygen), was the main target on the comedy radar, as both President Obama and Seth Meyers poked fun at the cartoonish self-promoter, who stated before the event that he didn't think the president would even address him. He was dead wrong.
Obama put any lingering doubts about his national provenance to rest, by releasing his "official birth video," which turned out to be a clip of Simba's birth from The Lion King. The stand-up Obama got in some mild digs at Michele Bachmann and Paul Ryan, and presented a mock trailer called The President's Speech — a spoof of The King's Speech — which self-deprecatingly imagined Obama having to learn from off-the-cuff "master" Joe Biden after Congress defunds his teleprompter.
But the elephant in the room was a potential revenge roasting of The Donald, and the president didn't disappoint. He said:
"Donald Trump is here tonight. Now, I know that he's taken some flak lately, but no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald. And that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like 'Did he fake the moon landing?' 'What really happened in Roswell?' And 'Where are Biggie and Tupac?'"
Obama also sarcastically illustrated the implicit difference between running a country and running a reality show, acknowledging that, between Lil Jon, Meatloaf, and Gary Busey, having to choose who to fire is the kind of decision that would keep him up at night.
Then Meyers ripped into Trump, saying that "he's running as a Republican. Which is surprising: I just assumed he was running as a joke." He took an easy potshot at the famous toupee, pointing out that Trump "often appears on Fox," which is funny "because a fox often appears on Donald Trump's head." And then, while Trump gave his best death stare, he delivered one of his more pointed jabs: "[Trump has] said he's got a great relationship with 'the blacks.' Unless the Blacks are a family of white people, I bet he's mistaken." That last joke carries extra bite given the recent reporting that Trump's real-estate company was sued by the Justice Department in 1973 for discriminating against potential African-American renters.
Overall, Meyers was brisk and funny, getting high marks for his glorified Weekend Update routine, while Obama was smooth and obviously having a good time, getting to sling back some mud with the impunity the dinner confers. The only one who didn't seem to be laughing was Donald Trump.
