The White House Correspondents Association has picked Jay Leno -- also known as this week's most publicly unpopular stand-up comic -- to headline the White House Correspondents Dinner in May.
An NBC rep confirmed the invitation to The TV Column.
To be clear, the association asked Leno weeks ago -- when he was simply the host of a prime-time show that was failing five nights a week. But when he appears at the annual Washington bash -- which over the past few years has become a Hollywood petting zoo -- Leno will be the guy who pushed aside Conan O'Brien to become the newly returned host of NBC's “Tonight” show. He has also been the butt of pretty much every other late-night talk-show host's jokes for the past couple of weeks.
Splendid visual, don't you think? President Obama sharing a stage with the comedic embodiment of big corporations screwing the little guy. (Yes, in this context Conan O'Brien is the little guy, forty million dollar severance package or not.)
Of course, the WHCD is an obscenity to begin with. If you are not familiar with it you should be picturing the final scene of Animal Farm, the one where the other animals can no longer tell the difference between the pigs and the humans. The picture of supposed journalists yukking it up with the politicians they are supposed to be covering is not very pleasant.
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No, I disagree with your characterization of the WHCD. The year that Colbert pummeled Dumbya Bush into the ground was priceless, even if Bush was too ignorant to understand it all.
COnsidering that Obama has gone back on just about every promise he's made, and has lain down with a lot of big corporations, going out of his way to protect and pander to them, I think the symbolism is perfect. Neither is funny, though.
No, I disagree with your characterization of the WHCD. The year that Colbert pummeled Dumbya Bush into the ground was priceless, even if Bush was too ignorant to understand it all.
In that very routine, Colbert characterized the WHCD in the much same terms as Rosenhouse. (Funnier ones naturally.) And if the expression on GWB's face was anything to go by, I'd say he understood all too well.
Q. What does the sequence "FDR, JFK, LBJ, JEC, WJC, BHO" disprove?
A. Evolution.
You seem to have cherry picked the data in order to ignore well known transitional forms there, Hilary. Color me surprised.
You didn't even do a good job of insulting the Dems - you forgot Truman.
My sympathies for Conan last about a nano-second. I mean its one thing to fire a guy a week before he is about to retire from a company he's worked 30 years at, so that you can purposely avoid paying him retirement. That is screwing the little guy. But walking away with $32 million? I mean for that amount of money I am sure some would endure alot worse, because in the end, they would be set for life many times over.
Conan got fired because of poor performance. He was getting beat by Letterman even before Leno's new show debut. Hell, he was losing out to repeats of Letterman's show.
Leno mad a good case on Oprah that the real bad guy in this exercise is NBC! Keep on truckin' Jay!!
Man i totally disagree. No offense but just my opinion