Comedian Michelle Wolf receives support, backlash for controversial jokes at White House Correspondents Association Dinner
WASHINGTON, D.C. (WABC) -- The backlash is being called "brutal" several days after the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington D.C. It's still the talk on social media, and many are debating if host/comedian Michelle Wolf was out of line.
Wolf has started a national conversation after poking fun at White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders.
"She's very resourceful," Wolf said about Sanders. "She burns facts, and then she uses that ash to create the perfect smoky eye."
Comic Pete Dominick thought the jokes made were uncomfortable.
"You are talking about powerful people and powerful organizations," Dominick said. "It's different when we punch down. If we punch down at someone or something that's been losing its entire life. We're punching up, in this case at the President of the United States."
President Trump, who refused to attend the dinner, insisted Wolf "bombed," but looking back, Wolf has said she wouldn't change a word.
"I don't think Michelle went too far," Caroline Hirsch, owner and founder of the New York comedy club Carolines on Broadway, said about Wolf. "I think her job was there to provoke and to cause controversy."
Wolf started at Carolines on New Talent Night with the likes of comedian Myq Kaplan.
"Knowing Michelle years ago, I don't think I would have anticipated this," Kaplan said. "Looking back, I'm not surprised and very pleased."
Kaplan pointed out that this was a dinner for newsmakers and the press.
"I think she was in fact doing a service that the press is meant to do, which is speaking truth to power," Myq added.
Hirsch thinks the backlash will benefit Wolf. After the dinner, people were calling Hirsch, asking about Wolf and if she knew her.
We all do now. And it's happened before when Don Imus re-defined his career by criticizing the Clintons and Stephen Colbert became a superstar after taking on Pres. George W. Bush.
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