Politics is filled, by and large, with the type of people you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with at a party (“It’s about the economy, Seth. Jobs, okay?”), so this one makes perfect sense: Saturday Night Live cast member Cecily Strong will host the 2015 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
Strong will be the fourth woman to take on the duty of roasting the president and the press corps that covers him, the White House Correspondents Association announced on Wednesday. Since 1983, when the annual tradition of a comedian’s performance began, Paula Poundstone provided the entertainment in 1992, Elayne Boosler in 1993, and Wanda Sykes in 2009.
“Her political humor is sly and edgy, and it comes with a Chicago accent,” WHCD President Christi Parsons said in an e-mail, noting the comedian boasts some journalistic and political connections: Strong’s father was Bill Strong, the well-known AP bureau chief at the Illinois statehouse. [Washington Post]
Here’s hoping she knocks it out of the park. Four of the last five hosts of the dinner are current or former late-night hosts (Leno, Meyers, Kimmel, Conan) and the fifth is Joel McHale, so the gig is a big honking deal, especially considering the whole thing with her getting swapped out of the Update desk this season. Yes, this is very good. And you know what that mea-…
Dammit, Justin. Too early. But yes.