Before the originally scheduled 2026 White House Correspondents' Dinner was postponed after a failed assassination attempt against President Trump, there was opposition from liberal circles that the usual tradition of having a comedian perform was being replaced by mentalist Oz Pearlman. With the dinner being rescheduled for Friday, NewsBusters decided to investigate why these liberal critics were upset and found a noteworthy discrepancy in the WHCD’s comedy routines when a Republican is president versus when a Democrat is president.
Since the dinner began airing on C-SPAN in 1993, there have been nine comedy routines during a Republican presidency. NewsBusters analysts found that 65 percent of jokes targeted conservatives during these dinners. By contrast, during the 18 comedy routines during Democratic presidencies, only 49 percent of jokes targeted liberals.
A History of White House Correspondents' Dinner Comedy Routines
Clinton Era
During his presidency, President Bill Clinton was joked about 25 times out of 228 total jokes (11 percent). Vice President Al Gore was only joked about nine times (4 percent), and six of those were in 2000. In total, conservatives were joked about 55 percent of the time. This was driven largely by Al Franken’s 1996 routine that featured 39 jokes about conservatives, 11 about liberals, and two non-partisan jokes.
Beyond percentages and counts, there is the quality of jokes. During the Clinton era, some of the nastiness that would define later dinners would begin to surface. For example, Elayne Boosler used her 1993 performance to attack George H.W. Bush and boost abortion, “It wasn’t any better under President Bush. Bush was so interesting to me. He was against abortion, but for capital punishment. Spoken like a true fisherman. Throw ‘em back, kill em when they’re bigger.”
Boosler also got in a gratuitous shot at Phyllis Schlafly, “Phyllis Schlafly, I have a terrible, disgusting fantasy I would like to do to this woman. Hell, I’ll tell you. I’ll never see you again. It’s awful, but I think she deserves it. You know what I would like to do to Phyllis Schlafly? I’d like to take her into a room and tie her to a chair and force her to watch people minding their own business.”
Franken used both his 1994 and 1996 appearances to feud with Rush Limbaugh. In ’94, he retorted, “Rush Limbaugh is what I call a disinfotainer. He entertains by spreading disinformation.” In ’96, he did some self-promotion, “I’d like to take a moment to mention my book, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations.”
Ahead of the 2000 election, Jay Leno had one take that, 16 years later, aged rather poorly, “Donald Trump running for president. He once said in an interview, 'People just want to be told the truth,' and he’s the type of guy, the type of straight-shooter, that people would vote for. Really? A real estate owner who’s a casino owner wants to be a politician. Isn’t that pretty much the triple crown of lying right there?”
Also on the 2000 election, Leno claimed, “Bush is trying to attract more people to the Republican Party, said he wants to create a big tent, which is also the Republican’s housing policy for the poor.”
Commenting on that year’s GOP primary, Leno also quipped, “You know it’s sad, I didn’t enjoy seeing McCain and Bush attacking each other during the campaign. Remember the glory days of the Republican Party when they were all united against the poor and minorities? What happened there?”
However, there was also Ray Romano in 1998, who told only three political jokes, including one about conservatives, one about liberals, and one non-partisan joke. Romano confessed to not being particularly interested in politics and was content to talk about what it is like to be the parent of twins. Romano’s apolitical routine would soon stand out as the exception to the rule.
Bush Era
When he was in office, President George W. Bush was the butt of 31 of 125 jokes (25 percent) from WHCD comedians. Vice President Dick Cheney received nine (7 percent). During the Bush administration 63 percent of jokes targeted conservatives.
Interestingly enough, most Bush-attended dinners were not especially nasty. Darrell Hammond (2001), Drew Carey (2002), Cedric the Entertainer (2005), and Rich Little (2007) all failed to reach double-digit jokes about conservatives. Hammond actually preferred to go back and mostly joke about Clinton and Gore, while Little just did impressions.
The exception and definite low point of the Bush era was without a doubt Stephen Colbert’s 2006 performance, where he did his entire bit in his satirical Colbert Report character and told 20 jokes about conservatives versus only two about liberals. Addressing Bush, Colbert said, “We both get it. Guys like us, we’re not some brainiacs on the nerd patrol. We’re not members of the factanista. We go straight from the gut.”
When talking about Bush’s approval rating, Colbert added, “We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in 'reality' and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
Colbert also attacked the media for not being liberal enough, “Over the past five years, you people were so good over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn’t want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out.”
He further urged reporters to “Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know, fiction.”
Additionally, he told them, “And then you write, 'Oh, they’re just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.' First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.”
Obama Era
Barack Obama's presidency is proof that numbers do not necessarily tell the whole story. Obama was on the receiving end of 50 out of 445 jokes (11 percent) while Vice President Joe Biden was joked about 22 times (5 percent). However, liberals were joked about a majority of the time, at 52 percent.
The performers joked about Obama in the “you tease the ones you love” kind of way. For instance, in 2009, Wanda Sykes told Obama, “It’s hard to poke fun at the president because he’s so likeable. Everybody likes him. T-shirts and bumper stickers. Listening to the radio and people are dedicating songs, ‘I like to send out always and forever to Mr. President.’ People love you.”
By contrast, Sykes compared Rush Limbaugh to the 9/11 terrorists and wished death upon him, “I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight” and, in allusion to Limbaugh’s “I hope he fails” remarks, “I hope his kidneys fail. How about that?”
In 2011, Seth Meyers had a hot take that altered history, “And then of course, there’s Donald Trump. Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising since I just assumed he was running as a joke.”
Jimmy Kimmel claimed in 2012, “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 about what the Republican Party would become in 150 years, and he shot himself.”
In 2014, Joel McHale quipped, “Good evening, Mr. President, or as Paul Ryan refers to you, yet another inner city minority relying on the federal government to feed and house your family,” and “E! is also home to the Kardashians, who believe it or not, are Republicans, and I know that because they’re always trying to screw black people.”
The next year, in 2015, Cecily Strong got in some abortion promotion, “I promise, since I’m only a comedian, I’m not going to try to tell you politicians how to do politics or whatever. That’s not my job. That’d be like you guys telling me what to do with my body. I mean, can you even imagine?”
She also gushed over Obama, “You’re a lot like Madonna. You’ve both given this country so much, but in a year and half, you gotta stop.”
Larry Wilmore performed at Obama’s last WHCD in 2016 and made sure to constantly play the race card, “Welcome to negro night here at Washington, or as Fox News would report, ‘two thugs disrupt elegant dinner in DC.’”
On Obama’s hair, Wilmore added, “Your hair is so white, it tried to punch me at a Trump rally.”
Wilmore also claimed, “I am not surprised Donald Trump is happening to America because I watch movies. I do. And every time there’s a black president something always comes to destroy the earth.”
Eventually, Wilmore’s Obama praise led to an uncensored N-word, “So, Mr. President. If I’m going to keep it a hundred, ‘Yo, Barry. You did it, my n*****.’”
Trump Era
During Donald Trump’s two terms in office, only two comedians have performed during the WHCD. In those years, 32 of 118 (28 percent) jokes were about him and six were about Vice President Mike Pence (5 percent). Since no comedian has performed in Trump’s second term, there has not been an opportunity to joke about Vice President JD Vance. From 2017-2018, Hasan Minhaj and Michelle Wolf told 66 percent of their jokes about conservatives.
Starting in 2017, Donald Trump broke with tradition and decided not to attend the dinner, which led Minhaj to claim, “The leader of our country is not here, and that’s because he lives in Moscow.”
Minhaj also claimed that Attorney General “Jeff Sessions couldn’t be here tonight. He was busy doing a pre-Civil War reenactment. On his RSVP he just wrote ‘No’… which just happens to be his second favorite N-word.”
Trump’s absence also led Minhaj to try to reframe the dinner as some First Amendment thing, “Now’s the time to be a liar, and Donald Trump is liar-in-chief, and remember you guys are public enemy number one. You are his biggest enemy. Journalists, ISIS, normal-length ties, and somehow you’re the bad guys.”
Minhaj also claimed, “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 doesn’t acknowledge the amendment that allows him to do it.”
The next year, Michelle Wolf continued the trend of female comedians using the WHCD to push abortion, “Mike Pence is also very anti-choice. He thinks abortion is murder, which, first of all, don’t knock it until you try it, and when you do try it, really knock it. You know, you gotta get that baby out of there.”
She also had some colorful words about Ivanka Trump, “She was supposed to be an advocate for women, but it turns out she’s about as helpful to women as an empty box of tampons. She’s done nothing to satisfy women. So, I guess, like father, like daughter…She does clean up nice, though. Ivanka cleans up nice. She’s the diaper genie of the administration. On the outside, she looks sleek, but the inside, it’s still of shit.”
Wolf’s routine is most remembered for her attacks on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, “Every time Sarah steps up to the podium, I get excited because I’m not really sure what we’re going to get. You know, a press briefing, a bunch of lies, or divided into softball teams” and “Like what’s Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women?”
Biden Era
During his presidency, Joe Biden was the target of 19 out of 144 jokes (13 percent). Vice President Kamala Harris was not joked about at all. In total, liberals were joked about 49 percent of the time during the Biden administration.
After a two-year absence due to COVID, Trevor Noah highlighted the WHCD’s return by claiming, “I’m sure wherever Roger Ailes is now, he’s looking up and smiling.”
The next year, Roy Wood Jr. invited attendees to vote Democrat, “Speaking of drag queens, can we stop with the grooming stuff. Can you stop talking about that? Drag queens are not at a school to groom your kids. Stop it. And even if they were, most of them kids going to get shot at school. It ain’t no problem. Don’t groan. Pass legislation.”
Wood also accused conservatives of being racist, “Anti-CRT policies are an attack on black history and an attempt to erase the contributions of black people from the history books…. You are trying to erase black people and a lot of black people wouldn’t mind that erasure as long as that black person is Clarence Thomas.”
In 2024, two months before the infamous Trump-Biden debate, Colin Jost praised Biden, “But before I begin tonight, can we just acknowledge how refreshing it is to see a president of the United States at an event that doesn’t begin with a bailiff saying ‘all rise'?"
Looking ahead to Trump’s VP search, Jost also quipped, “Now that OJ’s dead, who is the new frontrunner for Trump’s VP? Is it Diddy? And by the way, if Trump did select Diddy as his running mate, I bet this race would still be tied.”
Jost also made sure to get in his Biden endorsement, “He [Jost's grandfather] voted for you, and the reason he voted for you is because you’re a decent man. My grandpa voted for decency, and decency is why we are all here today.”
Conclusion
Since 1993, WHCD comedians have told 51 percent of their jokes about conservatives. That comes out to 533 out of 1,055. However, that percentage does not tell the whole story. While the ratio of jokes may be close to 1:1, the ratio of GOP dinners with comedians to Democratic dinners with comedians is 1:2. It also does not take into account the relative nastiness of the jokes. Jokes about how nobody reads USA Today or watches CNN are not nearly as nasty as wishing death upon Rush Limbaugh. Jokes about Obama’s hair color are not as nasty as calling conservatives Uncle Toms, and people who insist that the WHCD needs a comedian to “speak truth to power” should not be allowed to pretend otherwise.
Methodology: A target for a joke could be defined as a politician, media personality, or media organization. In this study, Fox News, Newsmax, and their on-air talent are considered conservatives unless there an obvious reason to do otherwise. Other media organizations and personalities are considered to be part of the liberal media. The exception would be C-SPAN, which is considered non-partisan. Jokes about the media or journalists as a monolith were not included.
