Top 10 Best Political Jokes from the White House Correspondents Dinner

Saturday night’s White House Correspondents Dinner was chock-full-o corny jokes and problematic jokes (like “fat” jokes about Chris Christie– as if there aren’t substantive things to make fun of the Governor for). But there were some great moments that were both funny and meaningful from President Barack Obama and Jimmy Kimmel. Here’s a video compilation I made with a top 10 list below it. Warning: nothing will ever come close to Stephen Colbert’s brilliant, satirical, subversive and courageous roast of Bush back in 2006.

  1. “And that’s why I want to especially thank all the members [of Congress] who took a break from their exhausting schedule of not passing any laws to be here tonight.” (Obama)
  2. “Anyway, it’s great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom — or what Mitt Romney would call a little fixer-upper.” (Obama)
  3. “Jimmy got his start years ago on The Man Show.  In Washington, that’s what we call a congressional hearing on contraception.” (Obama)
  4. This video which Obama introduced: “And while both campaigns have had some fun with this, the other day I saw a new ad from one of these outside groups that, frankly, I think crossed the line.  I know Governor Romney says he has no control over what his super PACs do, but can we show the ad real quick?”
  5. “David Vitter even went so far as to fly down to Colombia to investigate this [the Secret Service scandal] personally.” (Kimmel)
  6. Is that slut Rush Limbaugh here? People are still upset with Rush for comments he made about Sandra Fluke, but you know what? There is a reason Mr. Limbaugh said what he said, and that reason is Percocet…. By the way, just to clear things up for the right wingers. Here’s the difference between Bill Maher and Rush Limbaugh. The people who watch Bill Maher know he’s an asshole.” (Kimmel)
  7. “I actually have my own theory about Lincoln’s death. I think John Wilkes Booth was innocent. I don’t even think it was an assassination. I believe that Abraham Lincoln had a vision of what the Republican Party would become in 150 years, and he shot himself. (Kimmel)
  8. “I guess it just wasn’t Rick’s year,” Kimmel said. “Rick’s year was 1954. It’s one thing to oppose gay marriage. It’s another thing to do it in a sweater vest.” (Kimmel)
  9. “What’s with the marijuana crackdown? I mean, seriously, what is the concern? We will deplete the nation’s Funyuns supply? You know, pot smokers vote, too. Sometimes a week after the election, but they vote.”
  10. “Who are these people who think it would be a good idea to attack Iran? I hear people say, Bomb ‘em, nuke ‘em, just do it now. They’re a real bunch of yahoos, and Netanyahus.” (Kimmel)

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Born and raised on the mean streets of New York City’s Upper West Side, Katie Halper is a comic, writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker based in New York. Katie graduated from The Dalton School (where she teaches history) and Wesleyan University (where she learned that labels are for jars.) A director of Living Liberally and co-founder/performer in Laughing Liberally, Katie has performed at Town Hall, Symphony Space, The Culture Project, D.C. Comedy Festival, all five Netroots Nations, and The Nation Magazine Cruise, where she made Howard Dean laugh! and has appeared with Lizz Winstead, Markos Moulitsas, The Yes Men, Cynthia Nixon and Jim Hightower. Her writing and videos have appeared in The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Nation Magazine, Gawker, Nerve, Jezebel, the Huffington Post, Alternet and Katie has been featured in/on NY Magazine, LA Times, In These Times, Gawker,Jezebel, MSNBC, Air America, GritTV, the Alan Colmes Show, Sirius radio (which hung up on her once) and the National Review, which called Katie “cute and some what brainy.” Katie co-produced Tim Robbins’s film Embedded, (Venice Film Festival, Sundance Channel); Estela Bravo’s Free to Fly (Havana Film Festival, LA Latino Film Festival); was outreach director for The Take, Naomi Klein/Avi Lewis documentary about Argentine workers (Toronto & Venice Film Festivals, Film Forum); co-directed New Yorkers Remember the Spanish Civil War, a video for Museum of the City of NY exhibit, and wrote/directed viral satiric videos including Jews/ Women/ Gays for McCain.

Katie is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, and New Yorker.

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