President Obama Cracks Up RTCA Dinner Audience, But Not As Much As He Cracks Himself Up
President Obama was certainly a hit with the RTCA dinner audience on Friday night, cracking jokes at the expense of Chuck Todd, Brian Williams and Wolf Blitzer– but no seemed to laugh as hard as the President himself.
Check out some of his best lines:
• I have to admit, though, it wasn’t easy coming up with fresh material for this dinner. A few nights ago, I was up tossing and turning, trying to figure out exactly what to say. Finally, when I couldn’t get back to sleep, I rolled over and asked Brian Williams what he thought.
Now, the truth is, Brian Williams is actually a terrible house guest. He put an empty milk carton back in the fridge. He leaves his wet towels all over the Roosevelt Room. We’re pretty sure he clogged the toilet and didn’t tell anybody.
• It’s good to see a number of hardworking correspondents here tonight. Journalists like Chuck Todd. I think I spotted Chuck over there somewhere. At this dinner, Chuck embodies the best of both worlds: He has the rapid-fire style of a television correspondent, and the facial hair of a radio correspondent.
• Mika Brzezinski is here, I believe, in the house. Mika and I have a lot in common. We both have partners named Joe who used to be in Congress and don’t know when to stop talking.
• Wolf Blitzer is here. He’s the only man — the only other man in America with his own Situation Room. People assume that mine is cooler, but this is not the case. As hard as we’ve tried, we have not been able to generate the bandwidth necessary to turn Larry Summers into a hologram. We can’t do it.
One joke that didn’t go over so well for the President- “But you probably wouldn’t understand the concept of troubled industries, working as you do in the radio and television.” That drew some boos, to which the President responded, “Oh — we don’t joke about that, huh? That’s not funny,” with a huge grin.
Laughs continue after the jump…
• “Inside the Obama White House” is my favorite new show. There’s just something really compelling about the main character. It’s wonderful narrative. In fact, the show has been such a hit that all of you guys now want to come and tape one in my house. ABC is planning a series called “Dancing with the Czars.” TLC has got something called “John & Kate plus Peter Orszag.” That’s going to be good. Nick at Nite has a new take on an old classic, “Leave it to Uigurs.” I thought that was pretty good.
Of course, given the fiscal crisis in California, these shows all will be competing directly with Governor Schwarzenegger’s new reality series, “I’m a Celebrity — Get Me Out of Here!” That’s how I feel tonight.
• It is great to be here with so much talent from the world of TV and radio. Despite the flood of new media, I think your programming is more relevant than ever before. At least, that’s the impression I get when I read the blogs every day.
• Another difficult challenge is how to help our automakers thrive in the 21st century. We’ve tried a number of different approaches, and tonight, I’m announcing a new one. It’s a plan passed on to me by a close friend and advisor, Oprah Winfrey. So if each of you will look under your seat, you find that — you get a car company! You get a car company! And FOX — you get AIG.
