Comedians are back in business for this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
“Saturday Night Live” star Kenan Thompson will host, and Hasan Minhaj of the Netflix show “Patriot Act” will return as the featured entertainer at the annual media shindig on April 25, the association announced on Twitter Tuesday:
The announcement signals that this year’s dinner will return the annual event to its traditional comic format.
Last year, the association filled the featured speaker role with presidential historian Ron Chernow. That followed conservative backlash to comedian Michelle Wolf’s 2018 set that poked fun at then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was in attendance.
Check out Wolf’s 2018 set here:
Trump, unlike previous presidents, has not attended the dinner during his time in office. Last year, he ordered all his staff to boycott the event.
Trump was the subject of “Late Night” host Seth Meyers’ savage jokes in 2011, which some pundits have speculated prompted Trump to run for president.
Check out Meyers’ 2011 set here:
White House Correspondents’ Association President Jonathan Karl, who is ABC News’ chief White House correspondent, hailed this year’s bookings of Thompson and Minhaj as “two of the most engaged and engaging entertainers in America.”
“I’m thrilled they’ll help us celebrate the role of a free press in our democracy,” Karl said in a statement. “We’re looking forward to a lively evening honoring the most important political journalism of the past year.”
Minhaj was the featured entertainer in 2017, when he delivered multiple jokes about Trump and the media. “I would say it is an honor to be here, but that would be an alternative fact,” he began. “It is not. No one wanted to do this, so of course it lands in the hands of an immigrant. It’s how it always goes down.”