White House On Sykes-Limbaugh: 9/11 Jokes Cross The Line (VIDEO)

Two days after comedian Wanda Sykes quipped during the White House Correspondents Association dinner that Rush Limbaugh was likely the 20th hijacker on 9/11 (only he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed the plane), the White House publicly distanced itself from the remarks.

"There are a lot of topics that are better left for serious reflection rather than comedy," said spokesman Robert Gibbs. "I don't think there is any doubt that 9/11 is one of them."

Watch:

This next-day backtrack is fast becoming a standard of the White House correspondents dinner ritual (helped along, of course, by reporters eager to stir up some controversy).

Before her performance on Saturday, Sykes told "Extra's" AJ Calloway that she had been warned to keep it clean.

"They told me not to say the F word or the N word," she said. "I'm offended they even told me that. What do they think? I'm some ignorant a**. Like I'm going to go in there, 'What's up n*****. Like what the f*** they think I'm going to do?"

It's worth noting just how tawdry and offensive some of these dinners were in the past. A reader sends over a Washington Post write -up of Nixon's March 14, 1970, Gridiron dinner, in which racial sensitivities were left decidedly at the door.

"Things got no better at the Gridiron that night. Absolutely determined that a good time would be had by all, and equally determined to bring down the house, Richard Nixon appeared as the final act. The curtain pulled back to reveal the president and Vice President Spiro Agnew seated at two modest black pianos (Dwight Chapin at the White House had requested grand pianos or at least baby grands but the Statler Hilton could only manage uprights). This was the first time a chief executive had appeared on the Gridiron stage, and Nixon opened by asking: "What about this 'southern strategy' we hear so often?" "Yes suh, Mr. President," Agnew replied, "Ah agree with you completely on yoah southern strategy." The dialect, as Roger Wilkins observed, got the biggest boffo.

After more banter with the "darky" Agnew, Nixon opened the piano duet with Franklin Roosevelt's favorite song ("Home on the Range"), then Harry Truman's ("Missouri Waltz"), then Lyndon Johnson's ("The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You"). Agnew, drowned him out a few bars into each with a manic Dixie on his piano, and the Gridiron crew got louder and louder. "The crowd ate" it up," Wilkins observed. "They roared." Nixon ended with his own favorite songs, "God Bless America" and "Auld Lang Syne," and here Agnew played it straight."

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Comments

[rockyersocksoff]

10:31 PM on 05/14/2009

Wanda put her ballz on the line for the Obama White House, and she doesn't deserve to get them chopped off.

[USCitizenforever]

07:02 PM on 05/12/2009

After reading most of the comments on this site I have come to the conclusion that I must have been raised by very different people than most of you. Nothing that Wanda said was even close to being funny. Period.

[lovenews]

09:00 PM on 05/12/2009

Then why didn't the folk who raised you teach you not to watch comedy you don't like?

[rockyersocksoff]

10:44 PM on 05/14/2009

I'm so thankful that you are right. We WERE raised differently.

I was raised by moderate Republican parents in a nice small Midwestern city.

Lucky for me, they had broad minds and great senses of humor.

I was taught things like honesty, integrity, the importance of education, pulling your own weight, and trying to walk a mile in a person's shoes before you judge them.

I was also allowed to indulge my passion for the great humorists of the age, at a relatively young age.

George Carlin and Richard Pryor were MY models of what humor can so in a social context.

And therefore I must say: you have very bad judgement as to what is funny, or what it means to be a Citizen.

[eposter]

01:14 PM on 05/12/2009

The liberal media elite (Olbermann) and the White House are telling you what is not funny. Pay attention and learn.

[jsgaetano]

01:36 PM on 05/12/2009

Ah do buleeve the faaar right is getting a case of thu vapors.

Their poor little delicate sensibilities!

[Hank10303]

12:15 PM on 05/12/2009

First of all - as a native New Yorker I don't really like people from other parts of the country telling me how I should feel about a joke about 9/11. There probably are those affected and effected by the events of 9/11 that were offended. But, I seriously doubt that most New Yorkers were.

Second, if Ms. Sykes wants to enter and be a part of the Limbaugh BS - let her. She is an independent and private citizen. Was this is poor taste. No, why - a joke wasn't being made indirectly or directly to the effects of that day; but with regards to Limbaugh's treasonous comments that are synonymous with negative American propaganda.

[USCitizenforever]

06:59 PM on 05/12/2009

I feel a huge need to call a spade a spade. And in your case, you are probably one of the most uninformed liberals I have ever heard from.

[french62]

09:28 AM on 05/13/2009

Ewwwlww, mommy look, it's one of those nasty, scary little liberals. Don't let them get me!!!

That's me calling a spade a shovel:-)

[RGKahn]

11:36 AM on 05/12/2009

I'm sorry but there is a little too much hypocrisy going on here. The republican talking heads have been calling Democratic leaders, from the President and everybody else on down the line, every name in the book and accusing them of every crime known or unknown. Democrats have been accused of being Nazis, Communists, socialist, Fascists, child molester and many, many more. The previous president had a little video that was a howler. It showed him looking around the Oval Office looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMB) and not finding them. Looking under tables, his desk and other furniture. A real laughfest. The assembled sycophants just thought it was the funnies video ever done. Guess what? It wasn't funny for the app 3,00 members of our armed forces who have died because we went to war over the lies of a President and his administration.

[Hank10303]

12:17 PM on 05/12/2009

The one important point being overlooked is that when the republicans make negative and sometime down right nasty comments - THEY MEAN THEM. This was a joke by a liberal private citizen.

[ManwithaParachute]

11:30 AM on 05/12/2009

Moderately funny=Wanda.

Extremely funny=Republican talking heads claim of disgust that someone lampooned their Gawd-King Limbaugh.

[thacarter58]

11:21 AM on 05/12/2009

I thought what Wanda Sykes said was funny as hell!!!! I commend her for standing by what she believes and also what she said. Now my thing is this if it had a been a comedian that was a white male would anyone really have cared? Or is it the fact that Sykes is a black female or because she made the jokes to the first black president is that what this is all about. The people that brought her in as a guest speaker told her that she could not use the N-word or the F-word. Rush Limbaugh has been dogging and bad mouthing everyone for a while now its about time someone gave him a dose of his own medicine. You just dont say that you hope the President Obama would fail, and just like she said that just like being a terrorist. Now I have nothing wrong or bad to say about Wanda Sykes what so ever but I do have something to say about what President Obama said about almost referring to hisself as God Almighty." President Obama made a comment that he would get the next 100 days done in 72 days and on the tha 73rd day he would rest. Now no one has nothing to say about that what so ever. People might want to take a step back and rethink their spitituality before you jump on Wanda Sykes case about what she said. KEEP DOING WHAT YOUR DOING WANDA!!!!!

[dRwOOD]

11:00 AM on 05/12/2009

To all the sad lil tro//s & the uptight progressives/Dems - It was funny, and judging from the lack of a response from rushbo.... he must not want to get into with a STRONG women that won't back down like the Repubs that hav kissed the ring thus far - including cheyney

what's the next distraction that MSM is going to latch onto instead of reporting on REAL news??

[idisVA]

10:55 AM on 05/12/2009

She should be invited again next year.

[Hank10303]

12:21 PM on 05/12/2009

The one important point being overlooked is that when the republicans make negative and sometime down right nasty comments - THEY MEAN THEM. This was a joke by a liberal private citizen.

Ms. Sykes is like Limbaugh in that she doesn't care about being politically correct, doesn't have an election to be concerned with and will curse him out before sunset everyday if need be. Limbaugh is affraid to confront this type of personality because he has everything to loose and nothing to gain. Kind of the same position he has put politicians in.

[SteveDenver]

03:08 PM on 05/12/2009

Ms. Sykes is UNLIKE Limbaugh in that he hopes his crap sticks and incites people to anger and irrationality. Sykes just strummed a common chord in the room: Limbaugh is a major jerk out to screw up things.

[climatebabes]

10:38 AM on 05/12/2009

Sykes ROCKED!

[USCitizenforever]

07:33 PM on 05/12/2009

She may have rocked in your opinion, but in my opinion, she is an i d i o t. Plain and simple.

[djsi]

09:57 AM on 05/12/2009

I don't mind comedians joking about Limbaugh/Mccain and the lot,i laugh at them more often then not and to write jokes about those guys is simple as they do idiotic things every day.

BUT if you're not careful about deliverying the joke then it becomes abnoxious.

[djsi]

10:00 AM on 05/12/2009

EDIT:OBNOXIOUS

sorry i can't spell lol

[USCitizenforever]

10:07 AM on 05/12/2009

I agree. Sykes was very bitter and not funny at all.

[pam45]

10:14 AM on 05/12/2009

Sykes wasn't bitter and she was really funny. Didn't you see the people laughing in the room and some even wiping tears from their eyes. They were laughing so hard. The woman is a comedian and those with a sense of humor found her practicing at the top of her craft. You people need to put a sock in it! The woman is a comedian for God's sake.

[USCitizenforever]

09:49 AM on 05/12/2009

What a shock!!! The White House once again waits to see which way the political winds are blowing before making a statement.

And this so called comedian? SHE is the real joke.

[RODERICK098]

10:31 AM on 05/12/2009

This country has been so dumbed down by the Rethugs you support that it's possible you do not understand her humour. Fortunately there are enough intelligent americans left who do get it and the real sick `joke`is that people like Limbaugh and the Rethugs claim that they and only they are real patriots when in reality their way of thinking has almost completely destroyed this country.

[punkindmb]

10:44 AM on 05/13/2009

Yeah, I don't like that they didn't stand by her. Heck they invited her. Sheesh. I wish this administration would stop doing things like this. When Bush was in office, he never apologized, never thought twice and was secure in his convictions. That he was wrong the majority of the time, is what is hurting us now, but I doubt he would have issued a statement like the one above. I thought she was incredibly funny and hit Rush et al, right where it hurts. But because Fox and friends are screaming the loudest, the White House has to issue a statement. Well, freak them! Why do we care what they think? They afterall aren't very fair or balanced. Hopefully this will be the last time President Obama apologizes for something like this.

As far as joking about 9/11, well, I think you can. The Onion showed us that it is possible to joke about that horrible day.

[voltage356]

09:47 AM on 05/12/2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9EbssUgHj4

[urfree2speak]

09:43 AM on 05/12/2009

What the?? We all know "CHAIRMAN LIMBAUKKE" is now the .new head of the REPUBLICAN PARTY and while he has bullied all of the wimpy ...limp.....spineless media into "clinging" to his every drug induced rant ...as being news.The fact is that Chairman Limbaukke needs more people to stand up to him and his party. I commend Wanda Sykes...Whoopi Goldberg....the Dixie Chicks...is it me or do we need more MEN to stand up to these people like these brave and strong WOMEN.....God Bless them!
Republicans have a strong history of attacking women that stand up to them....the republicans will not hesitate to attack WOMEN!

[USCitizenforever]

09:50 AM on 05/12/2009

Either you are really bitter or you are in the middle of a drug addled state.

[greenie 61]

11:07 AM on 05/12/2009

The only one who is in a drug addled state is the great bloviator himself. Why do dittoheads admire a drug addict?

[pam45]

10:24 AM on 05/12/2009

Facts stand by your side and I agree that women are definitely attacked more often. Wanda Sykes is a comedian and was doing what she does best, she tells jokes! People kill me by calling her ignorant because they don't know her background. She's not some little woman without a professional education and employment background. She is a very accomplished person who graduated from one of our oldest colleges in America. Question: Why didn't the media and GOP folk attack Steven Cobert when he did his thing at the Press party a couple of years ago? Give it a rest people.

[anewworld]

09:42 AM on 05/12/2009

Saying that one wishes that the President fail is also crossing the line....................

[USCitizenforever]

09:55 AM on 05/12/2009

I do believe Limbaugh was referring to Obama's political policies, not his health.

[anewworld]

11:02 AM on 05/12/2009

Obviously Limbaugh isn't too concerned about his own heath to to allow himself to get addicted to prescription drugs. It is unfortunate that this is one of those jokes that is very touchy............ouch.