5 standout moments from Biden’s first White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Here are five standout moments from the event.

James Corden lobbied for a job in the Biden Administration

The event opened with a pre-taped segment, featuring “The Late Late Show” host James Corden attempting to get a job at the White House. He goes to see Biden in the Oval Office, who directs him to the press office, where Press Secretary Jen Psaki coaches Corden on topics including the COVID-19 pandemic and Pete Davidson and Kim Kardashian’s relationship.

Before his first briefing, Corden prays to C. J. Cregg, Allison Janney’s character on “The West Wing.” He answers the reporters’ questions through song, makes fun of a journalist’s socks, and is eventually fired by Psaki.

Comedian Billy Eichner praised entertainment journalists

“We can all agree that it is more important than ever to be entertained. But without entertainment journalists, how would we even know who’s entertaining us?” Eichner said, introducing a parody category for entertainment journalism. One of the awards Eicher presented was the “WHCD Award for Telling Us What’s Been Happening on ‘The Bachelor,’ given to E! News host Jason Kennedy.

Biden poked fun at himself, Trump, Fox News hosts, and many, many others

Biden used his time at the podium to roast, well, everyone.

“We had a horrible plague, followed by two years of COVID,” Biden said, indirectly calling out the Trump administration. If Trump had come to this dinner, he said, “that would’ve been a real coup.”

“I’m flattered anybody would call me a new anything,” Biden said in response to Noah having called him “America’s new dad.”

“I’m not really here to roast the GOP,” he said. “Besides, there’s nothing I could say about the GOP that Kevin McCarthy hasn’t already put on tape.”

Noah called out the unmasked elephant in the room

Noah began his headlining set by acknowledging what many viewers at home were wondering about: the COVID risks of a large, unmasked, indoor event like this one.

“You guys spent the last two years telling everyone the importance of wearing masks and avoiding large indoor gatherings. Then the second someone offers you a free dinner, you all turn into Joe Rogan.”

“Dr. Fauci dropped out,” Noah said. “That should’ve been a pretty big sign.”

The media got plenty of zingers from Noah

Jeffrey Toobin, Chris Cuomo, CNN+, Psaki joining MSNBC — almost no media storyline of note from the past two years was safe from Noah.

“Unemployment is at 3.6 percent, 2 percent if you don’t count the Cuomo family,” he said, one of multiple jokes about the Cuomos.

Other targets of Noah’s jokes included Axios’s Jonathan Swan, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, NBC’s Chuck Todd, NPR tote bags, and Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough of “Morning Joe,” whom he called “the most adorable HR violation in town.”

Noah paid special attention to Fox News, saying their straightforward news coverage is often overshadowed by the prime-time commentators.

“Fox News is like a Waffle House. It’s relatively normal in the afternoon but as soon as the sun goes down…there’s a drunk lady named Jeanine threatening to fight every Mexican who comes in.”

Deanna Schwartz can be reached at [email protected] or @deannaschwartzz on Twitter.