Rich Little fizzles at White House Correspondents' Association dinner

by: Pam Spaulding

Sun Apr 22, 2007 at 06:30:00 AM EDT

Returning to the podium at the annual dinner after 23 years, Little made good on his promise to be gentle.

Little's material was safe if occasionally a little raunchy. He dusted off his impersonations of six presidents, from Nixon to the current occupant of the White House, and avoided any reference to current political issues.

Rich Little, with shockingly dyed hair, said at the outset that he is "not political" but rather a "nightclub performer who does a lot of dumb, stupid jokes," then proved that.

He started with a couple of Canada (his native country) jokes and a weak Sen. John McCain, which bombed, as did an impression of.Arnold Schwarzenegger, causing him to look at the crowd askance. "You thought Colbert was bad," he finally joked.

...Little followed by doing six presidents, including a man he "loved," Ronald Reagan. He put in false teeth to play Jimmy Carter saying that when he was a peanut farmer "I had the biggest nuts in the county."

As the presidents got more recent, the impressions got weaker: George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and then possibly the worst impression of all, the current president. But he closed with the one he is most famous for, Richard Nixon, saying, "Let's bring him out of the mothballs one more time." Little proceeded to do Nixon shaking his head uncontrollably, quipping, "I'm having a jowl movement."

Speaking to E&P afterward, probably aware that his routine went over rather poorly, he said, "this is not the easiest audience in the world." But he said Bush told him when it was over, "absolutely perfect."

***

For more satisfying entertainment, here's a blast from last year's Colbert appearance --  the complete transcript is at this DKos diary.

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works: the president makes decisions. He's the Decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know - fiction!

Because really, what incentive do these people have to answer your questions, after all? I mean, nothing satisfies you. Everybody asks for personnel changes. So the White House has personnel changes. Then you write, "Oh, they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!