‘The View’ from on stage
Throughout her professional life, Whoopi Goldberg has made two things abundantly clear. First, the comedian — and now a co-host of ABC’s “The View” – is a liberal, and second, she’s got a dirty mouth (Slim-Fast once dropped her as a spokesperson after she made sexual jokes about President Bush).
So, Goldberg certainly had her work cut out for her when she was asked to keynote Wednesday night’s Organization for International Investment annual dinner, held at the Ritz Carlton.
It is widely assumed that OFII leans heavily Republican and that fact wasn’t lost on Goldberg as she took to the stage.
“How shocked and surprised am I to be here as your keynote speaker?” Goldberg asked at the outset. (OFII had originally secured “Saturday Night Live” star Darrell Hammond, but he was unable to get out of his “SNL” gigs this close to the election.) In fact, over the course of Goldberg’s 20-minute routine, the bulk of her comments seemed to center around the fact that, well, this was awkward.
“There are certain things they asked me not to say.”
“I worked for some of you. Some of you fired me.”
“They didn’t want me to bash anybody.” Goldberg says she was told, “You can bash, but bash equally.”
“They wanted it to be PG-13, cuz y’all are so sensitive!”
“What, there are five black people here? We need to do something about that.” Alluding to a potential Obama win Tuesday, she added, “Maybe it’ll happen next week.” (Tepid, nervous applause splattered throughout the room).
The reaction in the crowd was polite but not raucous. Goldberg even wrapped up her routine a bit too early, leading an event organizer to encourage her to continue for a little bit longer.
Some of Goldberg’s best received lines:
On John McCain: “I like Johnny Mac. He’s a hero. … But he has to do something about that attitude. He’s crabby.”
On Obama: “Barack is such a shining star, but he scares people. … What, do people think he’s going to turn into Tone-Loc?”
On Sarah Palin: “I don’t want somebody who’s not distinguishable from somebody on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ I want one of a kind.”
