Wanda Land At The White House

Keith Olberman and others believe Wanda Sykes crossed the line with several of her jokes at the White House Correspondence Dinner. Now ain't that the pot calling the kettle black? Olberman cited Sykes' jokes about Rush Limbaugh and 9/11 and even Sykes' reference to the president as a mulatto as being in poor taste.

First of all, Wanda absolutely killed and I have no doubt her routine will be viewed in the future as classic political satire. Second, Sykes did not joke about 9/11, she made fun of Rush Limbaugh. The American public has shown, again and again, that it really is populated by a lot of grown-ups and it can tell the difference. There is not a person I talked with Monday morning who was not still cracking up as they recanted the best lines of the night.

The problem is: white elites are the ones who still have the power to tell us what is acceptable or not. If they don’t get the punch line, then it is not "proper."

Black comedy, by nature, is edgy. It replaced Jewish comedy in that department about 35 years ago, when a young comic savant named Richard Pryor burst onto the scene.

Even President Obama's performance Saturday night brought some of that edge from the street. His ragging on Michael Steele was a classic example. When America elected a black president, it also brought a new cultural sensibility front and center. The one thing that is quite evident about the Obamas is that culturally, they are unabashedly and unapologetically black.

Olberman should have been more outraged that Ms Sykes appearance marked the first time a black female gay comedian had headlined the event. Do you think her appearance had anything to do with new guy in the White House?

The point that Olberman and others missed is that Wanda Sykes was damn funny and that is the true test of a joke. You could hear the tension in the room as the guests tried their best not to laugh. As Wanda said “you laughing inside.”