Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner will go head to head against the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Samantha Bee, who hosts the TBS comedy series Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, will be speaking truth to power but won’t be making the same “mistake” that Larry Wilmore made by keeping it real in front of the real President Donald Trump and his free press alternatives. Bee won’t be critiquing the emperor’s new clothes to his face at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington on April 29. Bee will host an alternative gala, called Not the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, at the Willard Hotel in Washington D.C., the same night. The guest list hasn't been finalized yet.
“We’re not trying to supersede it,” Bee told the New York Times. “We just want to be there in case something happens — or doesn’t happen — and ensure that we get to properly roast the president.”
Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner won’t be a parody version of the annual dinner. Bee told the times that she wants to "ensure that we get to properly roast the president
"We were talking out loud about whether we thought the White House Correspondents’ dinner would change during a Trump presidency, or if it would even exist,” Bee said. “And then we thought, Why don’t we just do one, just to do it in the way that we would want it done if we were hosting it?"
All the money Bee and her fellow comedians make will go to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner played host to quite a few subversive moments in comedic free press history. In 2006, Stephen Colbert ravaged President George W. Bush in a satirical takedown made funnier by the fact that the administration hired Colbert based on his parody of right-wing political commentators.
The White House Correspondents’ Association has not announced who will be hosting the April dinner.
“Does 3 Doors Down do comedy?,” Bee asked the Times during the interview.
SOURCE: VARIETY