February 05, 2008
White House Courting Comedy Controversy Again
After playing it safe with dead-guy impressionist Rich Little last year, the White House has decided on a, um, more contemporary choice for this year's White House Correspondents Dinner entertainment: late-night talk-show host Craig Ferguson.
Ferguson is a fine choice for the dinner because he's proved to actually be funny, in spite of his introduction to American audiences on "The Drew Carey Show." And the cherry on top? The Scotsman just became an American citizen.
"As soon as I became an American I thought, you know what is going to happen, I am going to get jury duty or the CIA is going to get in touch and get me to assassinate a foreign state or something like that. Something boring," Ferguson told his audience on the show that aired last night. "Anyway, my first job as an American citizen, I can exclusively reveal tonight, is performing at the White House Correspondents Dinner this year. I'm doing it!"
We have a fondness in our hearts for Little's work on "The Love Boat," and we kid him with our headline. He acknowledged that the White House went with him last year because it didn't want "someone political or controversial again."
The White House tapped Little after getting burned by an in-character-but-is-he-really Stephen Colbert, whose barbed zings at President Bush over the war -- and the compliant Beltway media -- became an instant viral video classic.
Colbert, of course, parodies cable news bloviator Bill O'Reilly on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." Colbert's performance won him the adulation of the left and the scorn of the Beltway establishment, but it shouldn't have surprised anyone who's actually watched his show. Maybe living in Washington dulls one's capacity to gauge satire?
Ferguson may not be the satirist Colbert is, but he seems to have a healthy sense of perspective when it comes to the dinner.
"There is a big fancy party in D.C. It is like the Oscars for politicians where you cry and thank your agent," he explained to his audience.
Ferguson jabs at the sitting president as good as his late-night colleagues. On the pending Bush nuptials: "The president's daughter, Jenna Bush, has set a date for her wedding. She's excited about the marriage, especially the part where she gets to change her name."
So, in Ferguson, there is once again the potential for offensiveness. Isn't that what the Correspondents love fest is all about?
Photo courtesy of CBS.
Posted at 2:35 PM
Posted to:
Bush Administration, Media, President Bush
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