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Gene Seymour: Larry Wilmore hosted, but Barack Obama owned the Correspondents' Dinner
He says his zingers, comic timing remind us Obama pulls off these nights better than anyone
Editor’s Note: Gene Seymour is a film critic who has written about music, movies and culture for The New York Times, Newsday, Entertainment Weekly and the Washington Post. Follow him on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.
(CNN) —
Well, I’ll be. Who’d have thought it’d take another black comedian to make white people feel more comfortable about having a black president around them?
We kid, because we care. But do we exaggerate?
If the immediate reaction to the dueling African-American jokesmiths at Saturday night’s 2016 White House Correspondents’ Dinner is any indication, Barack Obama scored higher with the movers, shakers and screen stars in the Washington Hilton ballroom than this year’s host, Larry Wilmore, who presides over Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show.”
The second reaction: Take a picture, because we won’t be seeing this kind of high-quality presidential comedy again anytime soon.
01:23 - Source: CNN
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