Toto Recall: Comics speak truth to Pawpaw at Biden bash

Comedy cowards had a pretty good week, no?

First, fake “Saturday Night Live” newsman Colin Jost ended his White House Correspondents' Dinner speech Saturday by essentially endorsing President Joe Biden.

“My ‘Weekend Update’ co-anchor, Michael Che, was going to join me here tonight — but in solidarity with President Biden, I decided to lose all my black support.”

Because that’s what political humorists do, right? Remember when SNL serenaded outgoing President Barack Obama with a rendition of “To Sir with Love?”

The cringe … it lingers.

Howard Stern trades whack-pack for flack-pack

Jost, to his credit, actually flung a few zingers at the “Weekend at Bernie’s” president. That’s more than what Howard Stern did.

The King of All Suck-Ups interviewed Biden Friday from his SiriusXM radio perch, a chat so fawning, Stephen Colbert told Stern to take it down a peg.

It’s one thing to read the Stern-Biden excerpts, and I advise doing so before you eat. It’s another to hear Stern swoon like a schoolgirl over a president currently ignoring anti-Semitic protests engulfing whole campuses.

The MSNBC fanboy once stood tall for the state of Israel. Now? Not so much.

Stern was never everyone’s cup of Joe. He was rude, sexually obsessed, and eager to offend. He also changed the face of radio, delivered raw commentary few could equal and stood tall for free speech during the 1990s.

The 2024 Stern is a “Body Snatcher” version, or he knows his ribald past would get him canceled in a New York minute. For Hopalong Howie, it’s go far-left or find yourself out of a gig ...

Dwayne Johnson bails on Biden; bears bad behavior backlash

This reporter interviewed Dwayne Johnson in 2004 when he was promoting the “Walking Tall” remake. Johnson had spent a full day in D.C. chatting with fellow journalists. You try answering inane questions for eight-plus hours.

Now, it was my turn. Johnson didn’t disappoint. He was funny, frank, and engaged, brimming with energy for the task at hand.

That memory resurfaced after reading a withering report on TheWrap.com about the 51-year-old superstar. The report alleges Johnson repeatedly showed up late to the set of his upcoming Prime Video title “Red One.”

How late? Try up to seven hours, on average, and that’s assuming he showed up at all. The other details are just ... gross.

My old colleague John Nolte noted the hit piece came weeks after Johnson announced he wouldn’t endorse Biden this time ‘round. His proof? Many of the allegations against Johnson aren’t new, but they’re being shared for the first time, now.

Just a coincidence, folks!

The allegations are shocking, and we’ve yet to hear Johnson’s response to them, to be fair.

It suggests the rising star I met 20 years ago has had a belly full of fame, and he’s all the worse for it ...

Seinfeld on comedy censors: there is something wrong with that.

Jerry Seinfeld rocked pop culture in 2015 when he said he and his comedy pals avoid playing to woke college students.

Why would a squeaky-clean comic care about easily offended patrons?

Seinfeld cared because he cares about comedy. Then and now.

That’s why Seinfeld did it again recently in a chat with the New Yorker’s podcast. Seinfeld blamed the decline in comedy on the “extreme left,” and the media predictably melted down. The Independent, the Guardian, and Rolling Stone either attacked Seinfeld, called him old, or somehow insisted he was wrong.

Ad hominem attacks are never a sign of strength.

Except they couldn’t explain exactly why he was wrong. Because he’s right.

Rolling Stone, which once stood for free speech, spent most of its cyber-ink maligning the “far-right” extremists who praised Seinfeld.

There’s a reason leftists try to silence their opponents. They’re lousy debaters ...

Actual joke spotted in wild, to liberal chagrin

One final thought on Jost’s WHCD performance. Jost actually zinged President Biden a time or two, but the reaction from the crowd spoke volumes of the current state of journalism.

The far-left Hollywood Reporter noted his material was met with a “notable amount of silence.” Case in point?

“My ‘Weekend Update’ co-anchor, Michael Che, was going to join me here tonight — but in solidarity with President Biden, I decided to lose all my black support.”

Not bad, and it’s rooted in Biden’s diminished polling with black Americans. That’s satirical comedy 101. Clever and reality-based. It’s speaking truth to power!

Except the assembled journos wanted no part of it.

“The booing came and the silence lingered after that one,” THR noted.

That, coming weeks after an NPR veteran exposed the platform’s hard-left biases for all to see, captures the fall of the Fourth Estate to a T.