ComedianRoy Wood Jr.took aim at former PresidentDonald Trumpwhilehosting the White House Correspondents' Association’s annual dinner.
TheDaily Showstar, 44, teased the twice-impeached politician on Saturday night, calling him “the king of scandals” while confessing that “there’s too many Trump scandals to keep up with.”
“Keeping up with Trump scandals is like watchingStar Warsmovies. You gotta watch the third one to understand the first one. Then you can’t miss the second one ‘cause it’s got easter eggs for the fifth one,” he joked. “Donald Trump is the only politician whose scandals got spin-offs on Disney+!”
Not all scandals have admittedly hit for Wood, however.
“Just for a moment, can we just all acknowledge, can we just all be honest and say that the Trump arrest didn’t hit like we thought it was gonna hit. We’re so desensitized to scandals now that the Trump arrest didn’t do what I thought it was gonna do,” he said, comparing the rush to a marijuana high hours later. “The Trump arrest was like a pot brownie you ate 4 hours ago. You’re like, ‘Do I feel justice? This don’t feel like justice!’ "
Roy Wood Jr.Paul Morigi/Getty
He went on throw jabs at Republicans and Democrats for how they handled Trump’s criminal charges, explaining it “made everybody question what they believe” — with Republicans turning around on their “tough on crime” stance and Democrats backing down from their “we got to abolish prison” platforms.
Wood also joked about how the media went hard on Trump whennews broke that he had taken confidential documents from the White House, but backed down on Biden whenit was reported he had done the same thing.
“We found out that Joe Biden had documents too and it was like, ‘Oh, it’s not a big deal. Everybody got documents. Mike Pence got some documents. Ooh, look, aChinese spy balloon! Ooh!’ " Wood said. “Well done, media!”
Trump became the first former president in U.S. history to answer to criminal charges in March, when he appeared in a Manhattan courtroom toplead not guilty to 34 felony countsof falsifying business records in the first degree following an investigation into an alleged hush money payment he made to adult film starStormy Danielswhile he was a presidential candidate in 2016.
“Donald Trump is here tonight,” Obama said in hisfive-minute routine. “And I know he has taken some flak lately. But no one is happier, no one prouder, to put this birth certificate to rest than the Donald. And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter like, Did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”
The merciless mocking of Trump that night would continue when comedianSeth Meyerstook the stage to say, among other things, “Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican — which is surprising, since I just assumed that he was running as a joke.”
In the years since the 2011 dinner, some have speculated that the many jokes lobbed in Trump’s direction that night ultimately led him torun for office.
Donald Trump.Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty
Under Trump, however, that tradition changed. During the first three years of his term, Trump snubbed the gathering, telling reporters in 2019 that it was “too negative.”
His White House also began avoiding the event after Michelle Wolf’s turn as emcee in 2018. Like comedians before her, she bluntly mocked several D.C. players including former Trump spokeswomanSarah Huckabee Sanders.
The 2020 and 2021 WHCA events were canceled, meanwhile, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joe Biden.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty
But under President Biden, the WHCD has returned to form, so to say. This year, the president, first ladyJill Biden, Vice PresidentKamala Harrisand second gentlemanDoug Emhoffall attended the dinner — making it the first time each of the four key figures in an administration have been present at the event since 2016, when the Obamas and Bidens both attended. (Prior to that, the president, vice president and their spouses were all in attendance in 2006 and 2009.)
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer.
Wood was announced as the host of the annual event in February, saying in a statement at the time, “It’s an honor to be a part of a long-running tradition of celebrating those members of the media, who work so hard to uncover the truth, and hold our government accountable. It will be a great night that will go down in the history books, or not, depending on which state you live in.”
In an interview withNPRleading up to the event, the comedian said he was anxious and excited about the opportunity.
“It’s like Bruce Willis inArmageddon. They go, ‘Hey, the asteroid’s coming. We need you to … save the Earth. But with humor. Also, you might die, but … you have an opportunity to go up there and say some things that matter to people who normally don’t get talked to,'” he told the outlet. “You can’t say no to that.”
source: people.com
