White House Correspondents' Dinner: Wanda Sykes Knocks Sarah Palin Over Abstinence

More coverage of the White House Correspondents Association dinner: watch complete speeches by President Obama and Wanda Sykes, and see a slideshow of celebs and politicos.

Wanda Sykes, the featured entertainer at tonight's White House Correspondents' Dinner, aimed one of her dirtier jokes at Governor Sarah Palin. Sykes noted that Palin had been scheduled to appear but then pulled out at the last minute. Sykes then remarked: "Somebody should tell her that's not really how you practice abstinence."

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Related: WATCH: Obama Pokes Fun At Michael Steele And His Love Of Street Slang

Related: WATCH: Sykes Derides Sean Hannity For Not Honoring Pledge To Be Waterboarded, Also Takes Shot At Rush Limbaugh

Comments

[cksmith]

I'm offended by Wanda Sykes' joke about Limbaugh. It's not something to joke about! I just watched my Mother suffer & die from kidney failure (she passed away last Tuesday morning @ 4:30am while I was holding her hand).

Conservatives have wonderful senses of humor-not about people suffering & dying. Since "liberals" are all about treating people with respect, the rights of "everyone" (ACLU), free speech, love/peace-end the war-stop killing innocent people, etc... -very contradictory!

Party lines aside, get your priorities straight! The people who have kidney failure & patients dying & waiting for a transplant need to put themselves in their shoes for just a moment (& the families taking care of them). Be honest with yourselves, if the tables were turned, how would that make you feel? You'd never answer, because you're all so set on being against the "right"/"c­onservativ­e" side. It's not about doing the right thing anymore. It needs to be about doing the right thing!

I admit it I'm very offended & take this very personally-so don't criticize me for letting you know that it was wrong for even Wanda Sykes to joke about kidney failure.

Take a day to not voluteer at the humane society & local soup kitchen to feed the homeless, & visit a Dialysis Clinic & Hospice House/Nursing Home. I challenge you to do so. See how it makes you feel when you talk to a Hospice Nurse/Nurse at a Dialysis Clinic about what these patients go through. It's agonizing.

[mollymac]

While i agree with you that the comment was over the top, Mr. Limbaugh has said horrific things about people that were worse! I believe that Ms. Sykes was just giving him a taste of his own medicine and not focusing on kidney failure per se. I will say that her comment recognized to be in jest while his are mean spirited and directed in the most egregious manner. You can't dish it out and not get it back. Therefore, sorry about your mom, I just lost mine too, he deserved it.

[SayitNicely]

You mentioned comments made by Limbaugh which were worse, but I didn't see the quote you were referring to. Is it something you heard personally or are you repeating rumors?

To say someone deserved those comments truly exhibits the level of personal attacks and mean spiritedness, which I always hear condemned here.

[antifluff]

I am sorry for your loss and hope you can find peace in her memories. She must be very proud of you.

[American50]

These libs just keep watching as the federal government gets even bigger and bigger

But thats what they want!!!

[kylie]

No, we want the government with incompetents and completely inept and disorganized like the Bush years gave us
Where every disaster became a huge catastrophe. That's the formula!

[antifluff]

Is that whyin this admin the core upt have been invited to join from the beginning. How will he find some one that has not paid his taxes to be a supreme court justice?

[ebanks84]

I still don't remember hearing all this fuss about big daddy and his radio bashing of everything Obama. Where is THAT outrage?

This country seems to split whenever something racial happens. And It's always so disturbing because it never seems to split evenly. How can r u sh get away with all the dissing he does 24/7 and wanda gets a complete retort for just a few words, making her seem like an angry black woman. That is so unfair.

Here's an eye opener for all of you:

http://www.imeem.com/pbrain/video/Saq1cVZ3/smokey-robinson-a-black-american-tv-video/

[SayitNicely]

Expressing your disagreement with the Presidents policy is not the same as a personal attack in which you wish for him to suffer kidney failure or some other personal disaster.

How did this become racial, the things she said were wrong regardless of the race of the person who said them or the race of the person about whom they were said.

[primethad]

Sykes' comments regarding Limbaugh and Hannity and Cheney were certainly no more controversial or 'low-class' than the statements those men have made. Sykes is essentially countering them on their own terms. But she is doing so within a humourous context. That is, she acknowledges the ridiculousness of their statements by pinning them against those of a comedian, herself, thereby depriving them of the valid status their speakers wish them to have.

http://globaljuncture.blogspot.com/

[Gladys1963]

That's the biggest difference--she's funny, they're not.

[antifluff]

I think she is just obvious (blatant). Those guys humor is much more subtle (probably why the libs don't laugh).

[SayitNicely]

You should listen to them before making your comments, I have listened to both for years and never once have I heard either of them wish for someone to be struck down with a life threatening illness.

Disagreements of a political nature do not have to resort to personal attacks. Make a compelling counter argument, the personal attacks display the weakness of your position.

[cmarmonhalm]

This was my favorite joke of the night....quite hilarious.

[American50]

This was mine....Rev Wright and William Aryes!!!!!

[jack s]

I have to agree with some in here this type of humor she used was not appropriate for the event she was in. Now if she was performing in Vegas or a comedy club - yes we would accept this but not where she was. I think she could have toned some of the stuff down and still be very effective. All it does is add fuel to the fire, we are now being attacked and questioned if this would have been an RNC dinner would we be saying the same thing and they are right. We would be blasting the repubs for it just like I and many of us did for the Pelosi joke that golf analyst did.

[ediva75]

From what I have heard RNC dinners in the past with Bush 43 were humor that was mean spirited about folks.

[SayitNicely]

This was not an RNC or DNC dinner, it was the White House correspondents dinner.

The comments were certainly within her free speech rights, but they display a level of discourse which is definitly callous, mean spirited, and relects very poorly on those who found such comments to be humorous.

[LilyMaskew]

Wanda Sykes was hilarious, but more importantly, she brought up some salient points. Sarah Palin is well known for cancelling at the last minute, and Rush Limbaugh has gone over the line many, many times before. If Limbaugh wants the president to fail, then it is obvious that he doesn't care if the rest of us go down too. He has no conception of other people. He can make fun of Michael J. Fox without any repercussions at all. I think it's about time he got a taste of his own medicine. There is a difference between a comedy routine (Wanda Sykes) and straight, mean spirited talk (Limbaugh) on a radio program.

[Ultracool]

She is funny and entertaining. Exactly what they were looking for when they hired her. Although she cant be taken seriously. We need to all have a sense of humor and realize she is just a comedian. It can be said that her comments were inferior minded and she is on the low end of the gene pool when it comes to intellect. LOL JJK

[elias 52002]

Too bad Sarah Pailn's parents didn't practice abstinence.

[antifluff]

Like, Sarah, she is like a woman, like, wouldn't it be like great if she, like, became prez, like it would be like, historical, like that guy, that like just got in, like as prez.

[RevengeIsNear]

Rethugs are just sore because they are nowhere near close to having a black woman under their tent, let alone one in power and with a wacked up sense of humor. By the Wanda is also hilarious on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Get a clue, NeoCons.

[brandon102]

I thought Wanda was great. They brought her in knowing she was a little "edgy," and that's as far as she went, plenty of folks go much further. She followed one of the tamest (although effective) commedians around, Barak Obama, and she had to take the floor back from him, which is no easy task. For those of you teabaggers, he's the president of the U.S. in case you didn't know or believe it.

For all you Republicans I'm sorry Lawrence Welk wasn't around to play some music and Jack Benny passed so couldn't provide the humor, especially since he used work with a token African American and Michael Steele seems to be filling the role as the single non-White Republican pretty well. I hope those youngsters like Newt and Rush and Sean and John don't come up with anything too radical for you in their "new idea" rebranding.

And for your religious types, you'll don't find anything funny so no surprise there. May I suggest an immediate Rapture to solve all our problems? You don't even need to pack!

[Scriobhaim]

WANDA THE COWARD
Comedians at these events have always subjected the president to good-natured roasting. Not Wanda. She didn't dare ruffle the Messiah. So instead she spewed sludge from the gutter of her soul against the people who (yes, we knew it already, so, like, what's the point...) she hates.
Some wit.
What a coward.
Isn't it nice to know that people like this are soon, very soon, to be yesterday's news? The fame machine cranks out and spits out Wanda's every five minutes. A hundred years from now they'll still be reading Maugham, Lewis, Hardy, Twain, Woolfe, etc., and not a soul will have the vaguest notion who Wanda Sykes was. So much for your fame, Wanda.

[dmack]

What are you talking about? She isn't an author of english literature, she's a comedian. Byt the way, it took guts to go to the White House and say those things. It turned a normalyy boring evening and made it fun and entertaining. Please remove the stick.

[DaisyDooks]

Aw, poor baby is so upset. hahaha

[ebanks84]

Are you feeling guilty or something?

[Justwonderingy]

Did you watch the entire act? She started out roasting the President. H_e*c!!K, he roasted himself. And just because you only heard of her last week at the dinner, Wanda Sykes has been around for a while and she's always been quite funny. Oh, I forgot, if you just heard of her, you didn't know what to expect. or maybe you feel they should have had Bill Maher instead. He would have said worse.

[sjpersonal]

I totally agree with you regarding Bill Maher! Between the two Wanda was the safe bet LOL!

[sjpersonal]

I'm sorry are you even sure who Wanda Sykes is? I ask this because you have grouped her with "Maugham, Lewis, Hardy, Twain and Woolfe"

LOL! Just curious LOL!!!!!!

[Scriobhaim]

No... didn't "group her with" - rather, placed her in stark contrast with people whose minds, whose creativity, left treasures that have lasted and will continue to last for decades and centuries. Just to put things in perspective. Wanda Sykes is a blip on that kind of radar screen... a cheap blip. Hope I satisfied your curiosity.
By the way... "LOL"... very creative, very original.

[cutesky]

I don't know, but I felt really uncomfortable with Wanda Sykes' attempt at humor. I didn't think she was funny, just embarassing.

[ebanks84]

Then you don't know Wanda. She's been around for years and anybody who knows her type of comedy is not surprised and would say she was very "cool" from what she is used to saying.

[kylie]

"Cutesky", too bad, then. You must be a Republican.
When I've seen clips of the last administration, their blunders, deception, screw-ups, death tolls, war profiteering, economic disasters, post-Katrina malfunction and corruption, I get furious, disgusted, repulsed, and can't believe the incompetence.
Sykes did a good job of getting right to the heart of the matter and did it with great humor and absolute honest, bare-bones observation.
Rush couldn't be more deserving of her homage.

[muttleylax]

Whether or not I like Palin, that joke was inappropriate for that type of event.... in a theater maybe, but not at the White House Correspondents Association dinner....

[dmack]

Where was all of this when Rush made his remarks about the country failing. Where was this when Palin went around the country calling Obama everything under the sun. Both eluded to Obama being a terrorist.

[Scriobhaim]

He never DID make a comment about the country failing, dmack. That was just one of the lies Wanda conveniently utilized for the sake of a cheap joke.
Are you at ALL interested in facts and reality? If so, check up on what Rush really said. He wants OBAMA to fail IF "success" for Barack Obama means the transformation of America into a socialist paradise. Fair enough. If if comes to that, so do I.
There were plenty of libs who wanted the Bush agenda to fail, too. That didn't make them guilty of treason. Wanda thinks it's treason on Rush's part, though. Hm. I guess this is good old-fashioned liberal tolerance. Call the ones who disagree with you traitors and terrorists, line 'em up against the wall and fire. Or inject something to make their kidneys fail. Very progressive, Wanda, very enlightened, tolerant, inclusive.
Wanda Sykes is the Face of the new Jungle Culture. All dressed up with a veneer of sophistication, but at root, it's... jungle.

[DaisyDooks]

I thought Wanda's political spoof was extraordinary. It was timely and on target. She spoke truth to power.

[alwqb]

Amen.

[Scriobhaim]

Gaaaad-ZOOKS, DaisyDooks. You don't even know what the phrase "speak truth to power" means!!! The "power" there was Mr. Obama. Speaking truth to power means telling the man who owns all the artillery the things he might not like hearing. Fawning, obsequious, gushing ("Sir, Sir, Sir!") Wanda didn't do anything even remotely like that. She practically grovelled in front of the man.
Wanda = Coward.
Learn the meaning of phrases, DaisyDooks, before you try to use them in public. Really.

[scottinsd]

Then you obviously have no idea what these events are all about....you should do a little research and then formulate an opinion like that.

[mollymac]

Actually, it was very appropriate and deserving. She shoves her nose in everyone's business spouting her hateful rhetoric about our president; parading her kids like trophies, inciting treasonous remarks, Yes, she deserved it and she didn't come because she knew this would happen.

[anabelle]

Do not like Sarah Palin, campaigned for Obama,
but thought this woman was inappropriate for this gig.
Who ever thought it was a good idea is not so bright.