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One night only: Presidents become comedians at annual dinner

David Jackson
USA TODAY
President Obama at last year's White House Correspondents Association dinner.

At least one night a year, presidents get a chance at revenge on those who make fun of them the rest of the time.

They become political comedians.

For decades, the nation's chief executives have headlined the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, delivering monologues to mock political opponents, inquiring journalists — and themselves.

"It's an opportunity for the public to see a president in a different light," said Landon Parvin, who helped presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush with their dinner routines. "I think that's the allure of the evening."

President Obama performs again Saturday night, the seventh straight year he has done the correspondents dinner.

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The best way for presidents to get good reviews: self-deprecation. Obama and his predecessors often go after critics at these dinners, but making fun of themselves often salves the sting.

Take Obama's ex-smoking habit, for example. At last year's dinner, the president joked that "a lot of us really are concerned about the way big money is influencing our politics ... I remember when a super PAC was just me buying Marlboro 100s instead of regulars."

During the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan often trotted out an old topic: his advanced age.

"Mike Deaver, in his book, said that I had a short attention span," the nation's oldest president said during his last dinner in 1988. "Well, I was going to reply to that, but ... oh, what the hell, let's move on to something else."

Reporters formed the White House Correspondents' Association in 1914 in order to present a united front in dealing with presidential teams about coverage issues, a job it still does today. The association held its first dinner in 1921, and every president since Calvin Coolidge has attended at least one soiree.

Presidents have attended every single dinner since 1981, and Ronald Reagan had a pretty good excuse that year — he had been shot less than a month earlier. Even then, Reagan phoned into the event and joked about the assassination attempt.

"If I could give you just one little bit of advice," Reagan said: "When somebody tells you to get in a car quick, do it."

The dinners haven't always been a presidential joke-a-thon. In the early days, presidents attended precisely because they did not have to speak. If they chose to talk, they were assured their comments were off the record.

The move toward comedy in earnest began with the first television president: John F. Kennedy.

In 1962, he joked about a recent visit to a Republican-leaning area of Florida: "I've come back to Washington from Palm Beach, and I'm against my entire program!"

The dinner has grown to the point where it attracts Hollywood-style celebrities, a trend that accelerated during the Bill Clinton presidency. Clinton's first dinner, in 1993, was also the first to be televised (by C-SPAN).

Clinton produced perhaps the most famous bit in correspondents' dinner: a short gag film in 2000 film about his last year in office.

Then-president Bill Clinton reads a magazine as he waits for his laundry in a still from the mock video he staged for the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner on April 30, 2000.

Titled "The Final Days," the opus showed Clinton wandering around the White House as his wife ran for a Senate seat in New York and political observers focused on that year's presidential election. At one point, Clinton is seen addressing a press room with only reporter in it; in another, the president is shown looking at clothes as they tumble around in a dryer.

Clinton's successors, George W. Bush and Obama, have also gone in for long routines with visual aids.

In 2006, Bush brought in a George W. Bush impersonator. As the real president talked, the fake one revealed the president's innermost thoughts.

The real Bush: "As you know, I always look forward to these dinners."

The fake Bush: "It's just a bunch of media types ... Hollywood liberals ... Democrats like Joe Biden ... How come I can't have dinner with the 36% of the people who like me?"

A year earlier, first lady Laura Bush commandeered the podium from her husband.

"George always says he's delighted to come to these press dinners — baloney," the first lady said. "He's usually in bed by now. I'm not kidding. I said to him the other day, 'George, if you really want to end tyranny in the world, you're going to have to stay up later.' "

First lady Laura Bush steals the show during the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner on May 1, 2005.

Obama has also used high production values. At the 2011 dinner, held shortly after he released his long-form birth certificate from Hawaii, Obama unveiled "my official birth video" — using clips from The Lion King.

He also skewered one of his most prominent "birther" critics, Donald Trump. Obama joked that no one was happier about the birth certificate release than "The Donald."

"That's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter," Obama said. "Like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?"

The evening often features professional comedians who zing back at the president. This year's guest: Cecily Strong of Saturday Night Live.

Television has brought the event to people's homes — giving them a different look at presidents, for better or for worse.

Tevi Troy, author of What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in the White House, said the job of president-as-comedian isn't always a good fit and can become a near-parody.

"It may to some degree lower the status of the presidency," Troy said. "On the other hand, it's good to show that presidents can be roasted."

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