Roy Wood Jr. Reveals He Was Most Nervous About Kamala Harris Jokes At WHCD
The comedian also revealed that his joke was commenting on the sexism that the vice president has faced while in office.
The White House Correspondent’s Dinner is one of the biggest events for comedy in the political world, and it’s also definitely nerve-wracking for whoever the featured comedian is. Roy Wood Jr. opened up about how nervous he was to make jokes about Vice President Kamala Harris during an appearance on The View on Monday, May 1. Thankfully, the VP laughed at his material, and clearly thought it was hilarious.
During his speech at the WHCD, Roy, 44, turned his attention to Harris, 58, and he delivered a great joke, making fun of the sexist double standard between how she’s been judged while her male predecessor, former Vice President Mike Pence, didn’t receive the same criticisms. “I think the most insulting scandal to fall to the feet of the Biden administration was placed at the feet of our Madame Vice President. The scandal of: what does Kamala do?” he said during the speech. “That’s a disrespectful question, because no one ever asked that question of the vice president until a woman got the job. I don’t know what Mike Pence did. The only thing I know about Mike Pence is he’s really good at playing hide-and-seek at the Capitol.”
Roy Wood Jr. points out the double standard in how Kamala Harris has been treated during her vice presidency:
'The scandal of what does Kamala do … is a disrespectful question because nobody ever asked that question of a vice president until a woman got the job' #WHCD pic.twitter.com/gWE6gdTpwt
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 30, 2023
When Sara Haines asked what material he was most nervous about, Roy said that his jokes about the vice president were the ones he was most afraid about doing. While co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin admitted that they were well received, the former Daily Show correspondent admitted that going into it, he was afraid. “We could say that now!” he said. “The joke literally starts with ‘What does Kamala do?’ That was the first minute of the joke, and I was like, ‘Oh Jesus, please.'”
Roy continued and explained that while the joke was very nuanced, he was worried about the opening line offending Harris. “It’s a joke about how that question in my opinion is an insult, because we didn’t really ask it of Mike Pence when he was running and hiding around the White House. I think it was fair to at least point out some of the stuff that she’s done from a policy standpoint, but they flip it to sexism, but you have to get through that first line, and pause, because if she doesn’t smile at that, the next two minutes,” he said, before the hosts laughed, and he got cut off.
Ana Navarro hopped in, and she assured the comedian that Harris definitely can take a joke. “She’s got a sense of humor, and she laughs very easily,” she said, while pointing out that people have criticized her for her laugh. Roy hopped in and said he had no idea that she loved to laugh, and he wished that he’d known that going in. “Well the media needs to report on her sense of humor, because I didn’t know about that,” he said.
Aside from speaking about his own experience, Roy also complimented President Joe Biden for his own comedic speech, and he said that he felt like the president leaning into the criticisms made of him were a good strategy going into the 2024 election.