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NEW DELHI: The highlight of US President Barack Obama’s speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner 2015 was a guest appearance by Keegan-Michael Key of Comedy Central’s Key & Peele. Key appeared as “Luther” -- the President’s “anger translator.”
Playing a character that was developed on the sketch comedy show, Key “translated” Obama’s mild words into an angry rant, telling the audience to “hold on to your lily-white butts.” Obama, however, couldn’t contain his anger when he approached the topic of climate change, with Key -- we mean Luther -- telling the President: “With all due respect sir, you don’t need an anger translator, you need counseling.”
This five-minute appearance was not the only funny part of the speech, with Obama aiming zingers at a range of targets, including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and the Koch Brothers. “Welcome to the White House Correspondents’ dinner, the night when Washington celebrates itself. Somebody’s gotta do it,” Obama kicked off the speech.
Obama joked that he and Biden had gotten so close that “that some places in Indiana won’t serve us pizza anymore.” "Those Joe Biden shoulder massages are like magic. You should try one." [Pause.] "Oh, you have?" the President said. When speaking of a plan to keep drones off the White House lawns, an image of Biden with a baseball bat, poised to swat a drone out off the sky, flashed on screen:
In reference to Clinton, Obama joked that the economy has gotten so bad that "I had a friend, just a few weeks ago, she was making millions of dollars a year, and now she's living out of a van in Iowa."
On the 2016 GOP field and the Koch brothers, Obama said that "The Koch brothers think they need to spend a billion dollars to get folks to like one of these people… I raised a lot ... but my middle name is Hussein."
Obama even took a pot shot at himself. “Being President is never easy. I still have to fix the broken immigration system, issue veto threats, negotiate with Iran, all while finding time to pray five times a day,” he said.
“It’s no wonder people keep pointing out how the presidency has aged me. I look so old John Boehner has already invited (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to speak at my funeral,” the President said in reference to house speaker Boehner.
“Dick Cheney says he thinks I’m the worst President of his lifetime, which is interesting because I think Dick Cheney is the worst President of my lifetime. Quite a coincidence,” Obama said.
Watch the full speech here:
