After spending the day in meetings on Capitol Hill and in the White House discussing last year’s strike, Writers Guild of America East scribes from various television shows brought their brand of unapologetic political humor right to the nation’s doorstep Friday night.
“Well, this is a real ‘who’s who of ‘whose assistants,’” jabbed “The Colbert Report” writer Opus Moreschi at the audience of Washingtonians at the Newseum.
No topic was off limits as four of the writers began the first half of the evening with stand-up-routines.
Matt Goldich of “Best Week Ever” blasted Air Force One’s recent New York City flyby, and Bill Scheft of “Late Show with David Letterman” made light of Saddam Hussein’s execution, Elliot Spitzer’s prostitution scandal and waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
But it sounds like those up on the Capitol can hold their own.
J.R. Havlan of “The Daily Show” recounted to Yeas & Nays his meeting with Harry Reid earlier in the day, when the Senate Majority Leader relayed to Havlan his fortune to have a name that wouldn’t need changing were he ever to turn to a career in pornography.
The writers also toured the White House and sat down with chief President Barack Obama speech writer Jon Favreau for about an hour.
“We’re so used to making fun of them,” said Havlan of meeting the politicos he usually parodies, “and now we have to face them.”
For the evening’s second half the writers assembled for a panel moderated by Michael Winship, president of WGAE and senior writer for Bill Moyers Journal. The group commented on the role of their scripted shows within contemporary news media.
“We’re the dessert, the end of the news meal,” said “Daily Show” writer Tim Carvell. The former Fortune magazine writer played a large part in the show’s ongoing lambasting of CNBC host Jim Cramer.
“We’re not the driving force, we’re just sitting in the back of the class commenting.”
–Paul D. Shinkman reporting
