No, Wilmore just made them mad. It’s ok, maybe he made you mad too. No need to cop pleas on their behalf. Making assholes mad is funny, and will always be funny. The anger was palpable.
Obamas speech had two good laugh lines for me, which is pretty decent. The steak or fish line and another I can’t remember. The room reaction to him was pure sycophancy, and a bit disturbing.
Wilmore’s Steph Curry line might be the highlight of the Obama presidency for me.
I hope next year they have Ryan Grim…
Obama had better material and a better delivery than the comics all 8 times.
I thought Seth Meyer did a pretty good job. But yea, its kinda weird how poorly experienced comics do at these things. I wouldn’t think it was that different from what they are used to while doing stand-up.
I laughed a lot at Wilmore. I thought he did a great job of ripping the press. Though, yes, Obama was better.
I didn’t mind the harshness of the jokes. I thought a lot of them were kind of trite. His timing was also terrible: he’d tell a joke, overemphasize the punchline, laugh at it, and look around with an expectant grin on his face waiting for others to laugh. Obama and Colbert both were deadpan through their sets, which IMO is a much better approach to this sort of event.
Wilmore’s line about Obama dropping bombs from a distance was excellent: razor-sharp satire. The rest of it was cringeworthy.
I do agree with this. Wilmore is much better when he deadpans it, and the type of material he was using also benefits from straight delivery. That’s what he should have done for this set.
Eh, I don’t think the press was particularly mad. Again, this happens every year, and its the Press Corp themselves that keeps inviting comedians to host. Its kinda silly to think that they’re being blindsided by it everytime. It’s basically the purpose of the dinner at this point.
And the jokes are basically the same every year. Indeed, some of Wilmore’s jokes were almost the same that Obama had made all of twenty minutes earlier. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the first time the people at CNN had heard “CNN isn’t real news” jokes, or CSPAN has heard “haha, no one watches CSPAN” jokes.
Did you see Blitzer’s face? If looks could kill, Wilmore would have been slumped over the podium. And Don Lemon gave him what looked to be a pretty serious middle finger.
Lemon’s middle finger was clearly in jest. He gave a smile and a wave at the same time.
Blitzer looked like he might have actually been angry. But the room in general wasn’t.
If my name was Wolf Blitzer, I wouldn’t have a sense of humor either.
Yeah, Lemon was clearly kidding. And the room wasn’t angry. They laughed at the best jokes, groaned at some dumb ones, and sat on their hands for weak ones. That’s the sign of people who appreciate humor.
Look, when comedians normally draw a crowd of 2700, they have made it big and people are spending lots of money just to see them. Those audiences howl and roar and clap and make noise at every burp. The wilder they act, the better the atmosphere of the room, which is proof that they spent their money well.
The audience at the WHCD is not there to see the comedian. He or she is the last act on a very long bill, when everybody wants to leave for the afterparties. They are outsiders as well. Obama made insider jokes. Wilmore’s jokes came from the perspective of the home audience.
I’ve trying to think of the last comedian who won the room. I think the answer is nobody. DonLogan is right. Obama had better jokes and a better delivery as far back as I remember.
This is definitely true in stand-up: if you have a strong reputation already, it helps you immeasurably. People laugh at jokes that they would never laugh at if told by a non-famous comedian. In another thread, some time ago, doper RickJay made that observation about Louis CK, and i agree completely.
I really like Louis CK, and i think his show is incredibly smart and very funny at times. I also like some of his stand-up. But some of it is incredibly unfunny, and he often flogs a joke for far too long rather than letting it go once it’s gotten a laugh. And yet, in such cases, his audience continues to laugh uproariously. It’s almost like they’re the ones being paid to provide the show, and they don’t want to disappoint the guy on stage by failing to laugh.
Man… you guys’ sense of humor is way different from mine, and the people I kick it with: aside from the “Zodiac Killer” part, I thought that Larry Wilmore’s set was fucking hilarious! It was a huge hit with the people that are part of the RASN (Reluctant A. Social Network).
Oh no doubt. The mad-making took place with his jabs at Obama and Clinton, and MSNBC of all things. Palpable anger. And yes, Wolf Blitzer was fuming. The crowd was also mad at the unapologetic blackness of the whole affair. They don’t like it when they are cast as “other than” their idol the president, they’d rather feel like they are a liberal elite monolith who courageously saves the country from its backward peasantry.
I haven’t watched one of these in a while has anyone hit the president over his whistleblower crackdown? The “serious” part of the Obama speech had me wondering how many people believe that stuff outside of his bubble.
I thought it was a pretty good set, overall. It was a roast, and Wilmore is no roastmaster. That’s not necessarily to his discredit. He plowed nervously and facing a hostile audience. There is something to be said for delivery, that a more confident presentation of the same material would have given the punches more power. But I was rooting for him, and I didn’t think he did so badly considering.
I agree, the audience really needed to pull the cutlery out of their butts. I thought it was a pretty decent roasting, although it did fall rather flat around the middle.
I generally like what Wilmore does on his show, and he seemed to be doing the same type of thing here, without changing his style for the occasion.
Needless to say, the same set would have gotten a great response from an audience of Wilmore’s own fans.
The zodiac killer part, which I thought was rather weak, seemed to get the best response, while, as **ftg **notes, some of his more clever jokes barely got any reaction.
One thing I noticed, while the audience generally didn’t seem to appreciate the shots Wilmore took at them, Obama laughed at every joke Wilmore made at his expense.
That man has class.
Agreed on all counts. I laughed more than I thought I would at Wilmore’s set (although he did the Cruz-is-the-Zodiac-Killer thing longer than he should have).
Yea, I’m sure the Press Corp invited Larry Wilmore to an event with a black President in attendence and were shocked!, shocked! when he brought up race.
“Bringing up race” and “unapologetic blackness” are two different things but ok.
What does that even mean? Black people being black people?