This promo shows anything can happen at Sam Bee’s “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner”
April 10, 2017 Sam Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Samantha Bee, Television, Video
“Traditionally, the White House Correspondents Association toasts the President of the United States,” explains Full Frontal host Sam Bee in the above promo for her upcoming subversive special, Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. And traditionally, the WHCD (as its known) is hosted by a respected comic, like Conan O’Brien or Stephen Colbert – and it’s been that way for nearly a century, until this year.
Notorious bad sport Donald Trump has pre-emptively declared a boycott on the WHCD, saying he won’t attend, and everyone knows its cause he can’t take a joke; the event’s annual roasting of the POTUS is typically good-natured and fairly light, even during rough presidencies, but Trump’s not taking any chances – and, with the gala going down at the end of the month, there’s still speculation over who will host.
Rather than wait and see what a trainwreck it all is, Bee is taking matters into her own hands and throwing her own party, right down the street from the WHCD and on the very same night. Details of the special are vague, but we’ve finally got our first look via a short promo (above).
The spot features Bee in full Friars-style attire, in seedy 70s attire juggling a cocktail and a cigarette and rocking amber-tinted shades on the dais of an uncensored roast – a character Bee embodies so naturally, she might rival Melissa Leo’s I’m Dying Up Here matriarch. If the spirit of this clip is meant to give a taste of the special’s tone, we’re in for a ride, cause there’s a lot to roast and Bee – based on Full Frontal’s comparatively brazen reporting style – won’t shy away from saying some real shit.
Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner airs the same night as the actual White House Correspondents’ Dinner – both are live on April 29th.