Fast forward a few decades. Trail to the Chief doesn’t need Tom Brokaw, the Savonarola of Sun Valley, to tell us how inane -- or worse -- the WHCD has become. We know. One member of the TTTC team (guess which one!) has been attending the dinner since 1981. In those ”early” days, actual reporters invited actual sources, such as the staff director of the Senate Budget Committee, or a deputy press secretary, or the head of a new-fangled thing called a “PAC.” Journalistic activity was committed, albeit in an attenuated way.
Okay, so! Now the White House Correspondents' Dinner is all grade-B show biz, selfies, and now Periscope and Meerkat. It's a four-day-long, self-important weekend of corporate-funded lubrication, overrun by Hollywood agents and their star clients, Big Media lobbyists, and journalists who think that because they are (sort of) “visible,” they are smart, cool and influential.
And the notion that the president wouldn’t attend this dinner? It’s now just about unthinkable. Which is something that our 2016 candidates should think about -- especially those who vow to fight the "Washington machine.”
In substantive terms, only one thing has gotten better over the years: the comedy. Bob Hope became the founding father of WHCD comedy in 1944, but it wasn’t really until the '90s that comedy at the dinner became a Thing. Now it is a Big Thing -- the only thing the attendees take seriously. Whole pundit shows are built around analyzing who killed it and who didn’t.
The presidents themselves have long since gotten into the act, tapping top writers to produce excellent material. President Barack Obama has proven to have a nice laconic style and good timing: Bob Newhart with a pinch of Richard Pryor. Of course, he has a good team of writers assisting him.
As with many other things of mixed value in American life, the Age of Comedy at the WHCD gained real momentum once Bill Clinton arrived on the scene. Something about that saxophone. Here is the official TTTC rundown of the best and most memorable comedy performances of dinners past. We’ll update it Monday when we soberly (humorlessly) analyze Cecily Strong’s performance.
Photos: Getty, Associated Press, Library of Congress
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