A slightly contradictory (Joe, was it Wolfe’s “fault” or wasn’t it?) but still worthwhile assessment by Joe Bob Briggs:
(Don’t call it a roast, as some of Michelle’s defenders did. At a roast, the roastee speaks last. This was a comedy execution.) (…)
There’s nothing wrong with bringing in a professional comedian or an outsider journalist to host the event, but it has to be someone who knows what room they’re in. I’ve never seen a worse example of someone not playing to the room—and I’m speaking from the standpoint of a guy who has totally bombed by not understanding the room. The proper way to deal with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, since she was sitting ten feet away, would be to hit her with some soft jokes and then hug her, not nuke her with no chance of rebuttal. Michelle Wolf’s comments after the show indicate she was either totally unfamiliar with the traditions of the event or, more likely, just didn’t care. (…)
It was the fault of a generation of journalists who don’t know how to party, don’t know how to play the fool, don’t know how to accept the faults of their antagonists in government, don’t know how to rap or sing or dance or do any of the things normally done at these events—a generation of journalists who think it’s all about fact-checking and being right 100 percent of the time and keeping an all-business face to make sure nobody makes fun of them.
