I loved her dig about Michelle Obama slapping the queen on the back like she just slid into home plate.

Sykes was great.

Sadly, Stephen Colbert she aint, either. 'Edgy', sure, but funny not so much.

Note to Larry David - Book our President.

The White House Press Corpse proves why that's true.

Not funny.

Personally, I find these incestuous White House correspondents dinners repugnant.

Shorter Sykes: The slaying of Rush Limbaugh has been approved....

I haven't watched the Sykes clip yet, but just an observation: Sebelius pointed out the other day that entertainment in the Obama White House -- Earth, Wind and Fire, which admittedly isn't exactly cutting edge but probably strikes the right note for a youngish president -- beats the pants of the "Evening with Marvin Hamlisch" crap the Bush administration served up.

Rich Little, Laura using Barbara Bush's couturier...in addition to all their other sins, the W Bushes always struck me as being about 40 years older than they really were. W is such a plaid pants guy without the plaid pants.

In 2007, the Correspondents Association turned to Rich Little, the 70-year-old impersonator, who proceeded to do a routine that would have killed in 1977

But Rich Little wasn't funny in 1977 either. David Frye, maybe.

I thought Wanda was great. She went to the edge and stepped over it a few times. Although I thought the Palin joke went too far, her digs at Limbaugh were PERFECT. He's got the media and politicians so afraid of him that they rarely criticize him in fear of reprisal. Wanda didn't give a f*ck and gave him back what he dishes out on a regular basis.

Sounds like she stunk. However, she stunk in a way that we can enjoy.

Taritac - How can it be that the Palin joke went too far, but the Limbaugh stuff (saying he's treasonous, equating him to OBL, saying she hopes his kidney fails) is "perfect"? The Palin joke was short, sweet, and caught Palin squarely in her sanctimony. The Limbaugh stuff was about as mean as Limbaugh is himself. Never mind if you think the crap he says on his show is really "treasonous" -- the problem with her Limbaugh lines was that they weren't that funny. If you're going to be that mean, you need to bring the funny, and she wasn't doing it. (It's also not "treason" to hope that Obama, or even the whole country, fails. Hyperbole like Sykes's sounds like something Limbaugh would say.) By contrast, the throw-away Sean Hannity lines were excellent.

There was something about the Correspondents Dinner on NPR, which I'm too lazy to find a link for. But apparently the thing is big, big business for the news orgs. There are a whole slew of celebrity-laden after-parties, and the papers take their big advertisers to these things. Apparently corporate masters of the universe are just like you and me in terms of their eagerness to get next to Matt Damon or Reese Witherspoon.

I'm in agreement with most of the posters here: they need to either fix these annual Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, or just quit having them. But given what a big deal they are for the media and their clients, don't bet on the latter happening anytime soon.

I loved the Hannity torture joke, saying she could break him by making him sit in the middle seat in coach.

Sykes went on to note that Sarah Palin pulled out of last night's dinner "at the last minute."

Palin can't win for losing. When she left Alaska while the legislature was wrapping up its session, she was criticized for being out of state when there was governorin' to be done.

Palin cancelled her East Coast trip this weekend to remain in Alaska while historic flooding wipes out Yukon River towns -- and she's criticized for that, too.

Grumpy, yes, you're right. Palin can't win. And shouldn't.

How's that for short and sweet?

DT

One can only guess how Limbaugh will respond to Sykes' send-up on his Monday show. I bet he's spending hours today dreaming something up.

And to think, she won't grovel to OxyRush.

I, too, find these incestuous White House correspondence dinners repugnant. And it is not just this dinner. Former New York Times book reviewer John Leonard once said that journalists now “have more in common with Henry Kravis and Henry Kissinger than they do with papermakers and deliverymen, or those ABC technicians who were so alone, on strike, on Columbus Avenue.� What happened to labor reporting in the eighties and nineties? Journalists, who once thought of themselves as blue collar workers, now think of themselves as professionals and closer to management. Read James Fallows Breaking News, which is about the changing class interests of journalists and their consequently skewed perspectives. Former CBS Evening News producer Richard Cohen wrote in 1997, “The dumbing down, the demise of news is all about the hunger for advertising revenues and that plays out in the newsroom. The real crisis in television news today is about corporate control and the emerging corporate culture.�

How did our nation get into this current mess without anyone hardly saying a word about what was truly going on? How is it possible that so little attention was paid to such drastic changes? How could such revolutionary changes have taken place with so little public discussion?

What killed organized labor, also killed journalism.

Oh, I see. Jokes about shooting a sitting congressperson in an elevator are tasteless (rightfully so), but waterboarding jokes and jokes wishing kidney failure on someone are funny and "edgy".

OK.

"What killed organized labor, also killed journalism."

The best way to make a coward is to overpay him.

An overpaid journalist is untrustworthy.

"waterboarding jokes and jokes wishing kidney failure on someone are funny and "edgy"."

No, it's wishing those things on Rush..

That's funny.

Most of Sykes stuff was good, and nobody bats 1000. The best part, though, is the Republican outrage. There is nothing quite so entertaining as listening to conservatives sputtering as they try to respond to all those needles in the bloated egos of their party.

Jokes about shooting a sitting congressperson in an elevator are tasteless (rightfully so), but waterboarding jokes and jokes wishing kidney failure on someone are funny and "edgy".

Well, the golf goofball wasn't making a joke, he seemed to be deadly serious. Look it up. Where's the "joke?" And how many times has Limbaugh referred to waterboarding as "fraternity pranks" & so on?

It's also not "treason" to hope that Obama, or even the whole country, fails.

"Treason" seems to be as good a definition as any of that hope. And since Limbaugh seems to be doing everything he can to make it happen, he's a traitor!!

Sounds like Wanda all right. One of my favorite comedians and a terrific sit com actor as well. She kills in "The New Adventures of Old Christine" -- she and Julia Louis Dreyfus are fuuunnnneeee together -- and for may taste she was the BEST foil Larry David ever had on "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

I'm gonna go watch right now.

Yup. She was good! Hitting Rush up HARD is way overdue. I thought the 20th hijacker/OxyContin joke was great. Wishing him kidney failure was sharp (I HAVE kidney failure) but I tell you, making him sit in a dialysis chair for four to five hours three times a week, dependent on lowly-paid techs, many of whom are people of color and/or women, would do him some good. (How long you need to dialyze depends on your weight, so it WOULD sort of be poetic justice.)

She was hilarious, all the more so because the wingnuts weren't liking it.

Sykes was absolutely hilarious.

Next yr -- Chris Rock.

I am not sure I understand the distinction between wishing Obama fails and wishing the country fails since Obama's success or failure will primarily be measured in how quickly and well the economy recovers.

As long as Rush Limbaugh is the face of the Republican party, the Republicans will flounder. Remember the guy is a star on talk radio, but when he had the chance he couldn't draw a big enough audience to stay on cable television. He is very attractive to a small segment of America, the operative word is "small."

It's also not "treason" to hope that Obama, or even the whole country, fails.

"Treason" seems to be as good a definition as any of that hope. And since Limbaugh seems to be doing everything he can to make it happen, he's a traitor!!

OK, let's try this another way. "Treason" isn't merely being critical of, or thinking bad thoughts about, the country's head of state, or the government, or the country as a whole. Limbaugh is does certainly seem to be doing his damnedest to make things worse for most Americans, but even if *that* were treasonous, merely sharing his hope that Obama/democracy/America fails isn't an act of "treason." It's protected political speech -- hateful, ignorant, bloviating, yes -- but speech nonetheless.

But even more to the point, even if we were all (you, and me, the rest of WM readers, and the attendees of the WHCD) to agree that what Limbaugh said somehow amounted to treason, how would that be funny? Sykes wasn't there to draw up an indictment, she was there to do stand-up. (And I normally like Sykes - I just think she had a tough role to play here, and at several points, she was being "edgy" with the wrong part of the blade.)

Funny as a rubber crutch. A mean-spirited angry black woman who might appeal to her base of James Carville and George Stephanopoulis.

Pilgrim, I don't remember. Was this your position when the right was saying Iraq war dissenters were committing treason?