Hosting the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner was one of 2017’s most high-profile gigs: typically a good-natured night of mingling between media and official administrators, this year’s event was boycotted by a president whose biggest fear is being made fun of.
The choice to appoint comedian Hasan Minhaj, a Muslim American who’s also a correspondent on The Daily Show, as host of this year’s WHCD was a truly brilliant move — not only is Minhaj one of the smartest and funniest stand-ups around, the fact that he’s emblematic of everything our current leader hates (a comedian, a Muslim, a brown man who isn’t scared of him) made Minhaj a strategic pick, too.
Unsurprisingly, Minhaj – who took the gig less than a week before the event – completely killed this past weekend, delivering a monologue that skewered Trump but also gave some thoughtful takeaways.
“Do I come up here and just try to fit in and not ruffle any feathers?” Minhaj concluded, continuing:
“Or, do I say how I really feel because this event is about celebrating the first amendment and free speech? Free speech is the foundation of an open and liberal democracy… Only in America can a first generation Indian-American Muslim kid get on this stage and make fun of the President. The orange man behind the Muslim ban. And it’s a sign to the rest of the world, it’s this amazing tradition that shows the entire world that even the president is not beyond the reach of the first amendment. But the president didn’t show up. Because Donald Trump doesn’t care about free speech. The man who tweets everything that enters his head refuses to acknowledge the amendment that allows him to do it. Think about it.”
If you’ve got a little more free time, here’s the full hour-plus-long dinner:
