Trevor Noah mixed pop culture with politics on Saturday night (30 April) as he cracked a joke about Will Smith’s infamous Oscars slap at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
At the Academy Awards in March, comedian Chris Rock was about to present an award when he made a joke about the appearance of Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
“Jada, I love you. GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see you,” he quipped in an apparent reference to the actor’s shaved head.
Smith then walked onstage and struck the comedian, yelling “keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth”.
In the weeks since, comedians have been taking every chance they get to joke about the incident.
At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, The Daily Show host Noah said to the crowd, which included President Joe Biden, First Lady Dr Jill Biden, Kim Kardashian, Pete Davidson, Martha Stewart and many more: “It is risky making jokes these days. I mean, we all saw what happened at the Oscars.
“I’ve actually been a little worried about tonight. What if I make a really mean joke about Kellyanne Conway, and then her husband rushes up on the stage and thanks me?”
Kellyanne Conway is an American political consultant and pollster who worked under Donald Trump during his administration. Her husband George Conway, a lawyer and conservative political activist, is firmly anti-Trump. The married couple have feuded publicly over their political differences in recent years.
Noah also made a dig at the US military’s difficult exit from Afghanistan last year. “Please be careful leaving tonight, we all know this administration doesn’t handle evacuations well,” Noah said to a standing ovation, before shaking hands with Biden.
