The White House Correspondents’ Association will be holding its annual dinner on April 28, in a tradition that has happened nearly every year since 1921. The Onion presents a timeline of the biggest moments in White House Correspondents’ Dinner history.
1924:
White House correspondents are disappointed to learn that the special guest they were promised is just President Calvin Coolidge.
1929:
President Hoover visibly outraged by the scathing barb, “That a man of such standing would come from Iowa, I should think as unlikely as a moose riding on a streetcar.”
1939:
An awkward silence sweeps the crowd when FDR falls out of his wheelchair and no one can tell if he’s trying to do a comic bit.
1954:
Eisenhower becomes first president to smile at the dinner.
1962:
President Kennedy refuses to attend the previously male-only event until the ban on dames and broads is lifted.
1968:
Richard Pryor takes the stage to ask what the fuck he’s doing there.
1985:
Forever the humble everyman, President Reagan was able to laugh good-naturedly at jokes about the systematic death sentence of a LGBT community in crisis.
2006:
Stephen Colbert delivers a scathing comedic excoriation of the War in Iraq right to George W. Bush’s face, prompting an immediate withdrawal of all troops from the region.
2016:
President Obama brings the house down with a hilarious routine about how no journalists ever hold any president accountable for anything.
2018:
President Trump declines to attend the dinner for the second straight year, citing his loathing of extravagant displays of wealth and fame.
