Cecily Strong was an equal opportunity offender
Cecily Strong had a rather strong performance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The audience seemed tired by the time she got on. Maybe that is the reason why the pan outs showed many seemingly disinterested listeners. Reading between the lines and understanding the various ironies made this a rather intelligent performance.
Cecily Strong did not hold back on her zingers. She ribbed the secret service with a good one and then used the zingers to reflect the state of policing in the country.
“The Washington Hilton is great. And I bet that when the President walked in and saw those bellhops he thought, ‘Finally some decent security.’ Cecily Strong said. “I am just kidding. Let’s give it up for the secret service. I don’t want to be too hard on those guys. Because they are the only law enforcement agency in the country that would get in trouble if a Black man gets shot.” The room went into an uncomfortable hum. Cecily Strong then came back with a good one. “Are you saying boo or are you saying true?”
Near the end she gave a similar joke that reflects the state of our policing. “After six years in office, your approval rate is at 48%,” Cecily Strong said. “Not only that, your grey hair is at 85%. Your hair is so white now it can talk back to the police.”
She covered a changing media. “Tonight brings together so many different ways of covering the news,” Cecily strong said. “But you are all in this together. From the networks at the front. To the internet and cable at the back. All the way to the incredible print journalists who are busing the tables.”
Cecily Strong hits the Fox News unsustainable demographic even as she notes their preponderance for having a face that shows young female eye candy and old males. She hits MSNBC for its lack of programming (Lockup all the time). She hits the Huffington Post for it’s catering to the echat class. She teased Buzz Feed about its mindless lists of … . “Buzz Feed is here,” Strong said. “But I can show a list that shows 17 reasons why they shouldn’t be.”
Cecily Strong had a good zinger for politicians. “Since I am only a comedian, I am not going to try to tell you politicians how to do politics. That’s not my job. That would be like you guys telling me what to do with my body. I mean. Can you imagine?”
Cecily Strong’s performance was very good. It was intelligent and the jokes displayed a broad awareness of the maze that is our body politic.