Colin Jost Hosted a Tame White House Correspondents' Dinner

By Tom Smyth, a Vulture news blogger covering TV and pop culture

If there’s one thing we know about Vice President Kamala Harris is that she loves to laugh. So it’s tough to imagine a better night for the chuckling veep than the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where Colin Jost headlined with pretty tame jokes about Donald Trump’s trial, President Biden’s age, and his wife Scarlett Johansson. He kicked off his set by thanking the dais, including the Vice President and “Doug,” adding, “Doug, as you can tell from all the comments about my wife, I’m also used to being the Second Gentleman.” He circled back to the ScarJo elephant in the room at the end of his remarks, saying, “I want to thank my wife for agreeing to individually meet everybody in this room right after the ceremony. Don’t be shy, come right up. She hates privacy.”

When it came to politics, Jost narrowed in on the 2024 candidates’ advanced ages, joking, “I’m not saying both candidates are old, but you know Jimmy Carter is out there thinking, ‘I can maybe win this thing.’” He also joked that while it might not be a great time to be a print journalist, it’s a phenomenal time to be a courtroom sketch artist in light of Trump’s trial. “Every sketch of Trump looks like the Grinch had sex with the Lorax,” he said. Another target included Lara Trump, who was in attendance fresh off the release of her Tom Petty cover, about which Jost said, “Upon hearing it, Tom Petty died again.” He also joked that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be our third Catholic president, before adding, “I’m kidding, like his vaccine card says, he doesn’t have a shot.” There were a few cutaways to the Vice President throughout the evening, doing what she does best, laughing up a storm.