Streamed live on C-Span, as filmed with the back-up camera in a Ford Explorer.
The House of Cards parody was funny, even though I’ve never seen the show.
Obama was his usual smooth self, effortlessly delivering a better set of jokes than we usually get at an Oscar ceremony. Anybody know who his writers are?
But Conan O’Brien… He screamed most of his lines nervously, stared down at his script instead of looking at the audience, rushed every word as if he had 45 minutes of material for his 22 minute block, and generally wasn’t funny doing anything. A few good lines, of course - how could you help it with 45 minutes worth of one liners? Overall, that was the worst performance I’ve ever seen at one. The performances are seldom smooth, with never enough time to rehearse what has to be very topical material, and the presenters are often nervous as hell in that setting. Even the hallowed Colbert roasting of George Bush reads better on paper than it does watching him saying the words. This, this was just bad.
I only saw Obama’s stuff on CNN, but I thought there was some mention of Conan as a writer for the event, maybe he did Obama’s lines. I’ll see if I can catch where that was said.
That’s just a terrible crowd to work. They’re supposed to be all friendly and non-partisan, so they can’t laugh too hard at a pointed joke about a politician, but what else is a comedian supposed to talk about in such a situation?
The only one who really killed it at one of these dinners was Seth Myers in 2011, and most of his jokes were at the expense of Donald Trump.
Eh, the crowd seems generally receptive. Plus I always like how the cameras usually find and keep coming back to one famous guy really cracking up at their own expense (not terribly surprisingly, Newt Gingrich in this case) and one guy who just looks pissed (even less surprisingly, Chris Christie).
But yea, Obama did a lot better job the Conan in both delivery and material (granted Conan presumably has to come up with his own stuff). Conan had like three jokes making fun of Hilton Hotels?
(I liked the Spielburg bit because during the build up your puzzling how the hell they’re going to do it without showing Day Lewis in blackface)
I read somewhere that Willie and Korie Robertson (of Duck Dynasty) were guests at the dinner. Were they on camera for any length of time? What did they laugh at?
Naw: I watched Colbert’s performance live, and it was one of the most uncomfortably hilarious things I’ve ever seen, and that includes Welcome To The Dollhouse. That performance cemented his place in my mind as one of the great political comedians. If he’s not up there with Twain, he’s at least fit to shine Twain’s shoes.
Also the clip of Conan comes free with what must be the worst picture of the guy ever taken. Looks like a freeze frame of the Nazi’s in Raiders of the Lost Arc just as their faces started coming off.
