He focused much fire on former President Donald J. Trump. “Now that O.J.’s dead, who is the front-runner for V.P.?” he asked. “Diddy?” Like Biden, Jost has always benefited from low expectations. No one that handsome could be funny, right? But he has grown into his role at “Saturday Night Live,” proving to be an especially strong straight man adept at the comedy of embarrassment. You could see his timing in one of the odder moments when he said Robert Kennedy Jr. could be the third Catholic president and the C-SPAN camera cut to President Biden (the second) clapping. Jost retreated on Kennedy’s chances one beat later: “Like his vaccine card says, he doesn’t have a shot.”
For the third year in a row, President’s Biden’s age played a big role in the comedy (“Technology wasn’t invented when he was in high school,” Jost said of Biden), even in the president’s own set. Two years ago, Biden joked that he was friends with Calvin Coolidge. Last year, he referred to his “pal Jimmy Madison.” The president took a slightly different and more confrontational approach this time. “Age is an issue,” he said early. “I’m a grown man running against a 6-year-old.”
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Comedian Matt Friend joined in the action, too, with a swipe at South Dakota governor and recently confessed puppy-killer Kristi Noem as a bonus. Putting on a Trump voice impression, Friend said, “I am killing this dinner harder than Kristi Noem kills the puppies!”
Trump famously never attended the event while he was in office, and his hatred for the event has long simmered. When he attended as a guest in 2011, he was thoroughly flamed by President Obama—a humiliation which some speculate may have fueled his desire for the presidency in 2016.
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