Most comedians who speak at the correspondents’ dinner take a fair number of shots at the attendees in the room. (A coastal comedian is not exactly “regular” people, but whatever.) I wonder whether Talev thought Wolf’s I-could-care-less-about-any-of-you approach was such a great idea after the comedian’s speech. That was seen as a good thing, given that the criticism of Washington and its denizens since the election of Trump is that they/we are deeply out of touch with normal Americans. Introducing the “Daily Show” comic, White House Correspondents’ Association President Margaret Talev praised Wolf as someone who was very much not part of the world of Washington. Wolf had zero interest in playing to the room (You can watch the whole speech yourself here.) These are in no order other than how they occurred to me. I thought I’d share them – and expand on them – here. I took a bunch of my notes on my phone during Wolf’s speech. (No, this does not mean journalists are humorless or can’t laugh at themselves – so save it.)

Most journalists in the room – and I was among them – were largely quiet during Wolf’s speech, particularly the second half when she got very personal about Sanders. Others – mostly on the right – viewed it as a vile, hate-filled address that was neither funny nor appropriate. Some – mostly on the left – saw it is a speak-truth-to-power moment à la Stephen Colbert’s speech at the 2006 White House correspondents’ dinner. Comedian Michelle Wolf’s savage takedown of everyone from President Donald Trump to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders to the media was – and will be – the talk of Saturday Night’s White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington.

Michelle wolf correspondent dinner