The Josts are On Him

Over the weekend, the White House Correspondents Dinner was held.  If you didn't see the presentation by SNL's Colin Jost, here it is.

I thought he did a pretty good job.  Not every joke worked for me, but that's true for most comedy.  Also, he's not a traditional stand-up comedian, and as every WHCD headline has said, it's a terrible room for a comedy monologue -- it's a large ballroom and half the room is going to hate whatever you joke about.  But overall, it was a lot of fun to me. 

Also, he did something from his "Weekend Update" job that I haven't seen other comedians in this position do.  And I thought it worked here to his favor.  On "Weekend Update," they push for edgy jokes and not all work, and the silence just sits there.  So, I sense that Jost is used to that.  So, what he did here, whenever a joke wouldn't land -- he wouldn't look awkward and rush to the next joke...instead he did what he sort of would do on SNL -- he waited.  He acknowledged that the joke didn't get a laugh, and he'd just wait until the joke settled in (getting some additional laughs when it did) or wait to let the audience appreciate his acceptance...which also would get some laughs.

One thing to note that occurred right before he starts.  Emcee Kelly O'Donnell introduced Jost and ended by quipping about his early days in journalism in high school, showing some of his "hard-hitting" articles (like, "Teachers' Plans for Summer Vacation") along with photos of him at work in his high school days.

And so now, here it is --

And as a bonus, here is President Biden's presentation that preceded Colin Jost.  My appreciation of a president does not rely on whether he delivers a good comedy monologue, but he does a respectable job here.
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