SNL star Colin Jost goes all in to roast Trump, Biden at WHCA dinner regardless of the tame reception
Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost headlined the entertainer gig at the 2024 WHCA dinner on April 27, and gave the crowd a piece of his mind.
Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost ditched his Weekend Update co-host Michael Che to headline the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Saturday night, April 27. As is always the case with such events led by comedians, some of Jost's jokes flew right past the Washington DC crowd despite him keeping his source material as tame as possible.
Taking a swing at several politicians infamously renowned to many, Jost didn't let the opportunity pass by to roast the front-running rivalry between Joe Biden and Donald Trump for the upcoming 2024 elections. Roasting Biden's age, Trump's “playboy” persona and bazillion ongoing trials, the SNL star did all he could to light the stage on proverbial fire.
Colin Jost hosts the White House Correspondents' Dinner
Instead of taking his spot on SNL this week, Jost actually went live Saturday night, taking diplomatic digs at Republicans and Democrats alike. Declaring the WHCA Dinner the “nerd prom,” he blew up with a not-so-subtle jab at allegations centred around Florida Republican Matt Gaetz's sexual involvement with a 17-year-old - which he has vehemently denied. “We're here tonight at nerd prom. Well, Matt Gaetz is at a regular prom,” Jost poked around the allegations.
He gently treaded the joke-territory around President Biden and Trump, significantly accentuating their old age: “Jimmy Carter is out there thinking, ‘I could maybe win this thing.’”
Trump's legal entanglements soon became the talk of the hour, highlighting the stark contrast between the two presidential candidates. Touching upon Trump's fraud case and hush money trial, Jost said: “The Republican candidate for president owes half a billion in fines for bank fraud and is currently spending his days farting himself awake during a porn star hush money trial, and the race is tied?”
Jost continued making the most of the Trump roast and eventually took a dig at how the NYC “playboy took abortion rights away, whereas the man who's trying to give them back to the people is ”an 80-year-old Catholic."
Despite his absence, Trump took several hits at the annual dinner, much like when he attended as a guest in 2011 and suffered the wrath of then-President Barack Obama.
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Also, referencing an embarrassing encounter at the White House, Jost joked about, “The last time I was in DC I left my cocaine at the White House. Luckily, the president was able to put it to good use for his State of the Union.”
After dropping all comical heat, Jost ended his address on a sombre note about how Biden represented the kind of “decency” his grandfather voted for. Opening up further on why his grandpa voted for Biden during the last term, Jost revealed, “decency is why we're all here tonight… Decency is how we're able to make jokes about each other and one of us doesn't go to prison afterwards. We go to the Newsmax after party.”
Despite facing the tough crowd in person in Washington D.C., Colin eventually received a lot of virtual love from internet users who started trending his catchphrases on X/Twitter. He was especially lauded for his closing remarks on “decency” that ultimately stole the show.
