Caitlin Sluhocki

Journalism 1

Mrs.Milani

May 2, 2018

Michelle Wolf

        When is enough, enough? If you are a comedian, your main job or only job is to entertain people and make them laugh. Michelle Wolf was hired to be the comedian for the White House Correspondent dinner this year. The White House Correspondents’ Association is an organization of journalists who cover the White House and the President of the United States.

This event has taken place for years, and the comedian is suspected to do their job, and make jokes about the guest and political parties. But this year Michelle Wolf created a huge controversy because the White House Association were not amused and were saying, she took it too far. Her 20-minute set took aim at the media, President Donald Trump, his policies, and administration officials. Journalists and Trump administration officials stated the set as inappropriately harsh, a “disgrace,” or, in the words of President Trump himself, an “embarrassment.” Some believe Wolf “killed” the dinner for good.

The Hill has announced it won’t attend the dinner anymore unless it undergoes “major reforms.” The White House Correspondents’ Association itself released a statement saying the set didn’t embody “the spirit” of its mission. In the room, Wolf’s jokes were met with an awkward mix of laughs, disbelieving gasps, applause, and silence. But the question is, did she really go to far? She did what she was hired to do, and that was to roast the government. Wolf reports she knew exactly what she was doing, and she wanted that shock reaction from the guests. She is a very dirty and raunchy comedian, meaning she makes a lot of inappropriate jokes.

The White House Association hired her to perform at this event so therefore they must have done their research on her, and should have known what to expect. Wolf even told NPR , “I think sometimes they look at a woman and they think, ‘Oh, she’ll be nice.’ If you’ve seen any of my comedy, you know … I’m not.” There a controversial discussion this week about whether or not it’s appropriate for a comedian to make fun of a public official’s appearance like Wolf did multiple times during her set, last time something like this happened was in 2011’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, when Seth Meyers ripped President Obama appearance apart and nobody cared.

So what’s the difference now? How come Wolf is in such hot water in the media because she did what she was hired to do? Maybe Obama has a better sense of humor than most people attending this year’s dinner, especially Sarah Huckabee-Sanders who looked very unamused the whole time.

The president of the association Margaret Talev stated, “unfortunately the entertainers monologue was not in the spirit of the mission”. Ms.Wolf did her job, and she did it brutally well, if they can’t take her sense of humor then why did they hire her? In other words, what did you expect from a person who called Trump a “racist fake gynecologist” On the Daily Show.