We’re pumped that Cecily Strong is hosting the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
It’s another big day for smart ladies. The White House Correspondents’ Association has announced that Cecily Strong will be the emcee for the Correspondents’ Dinner next April, and they couldn’t have picked a better hostess. Strong will take on the role of hosting the notoriously awkward (but hilarious) dinner where politicians, press folks—and sometimes, even the president—get roasted.
“Her political humor is sly and edgy, and it comes with a Chicago accent,” WHCD President Christi Parsons told Politico of their decision to go with Strong.
While it’s always thrilling to have a sister do something few other sisters have done, this feels like a particularly important victory. Strong is only the fourth woman to host the Correspondents’ Dinner, and it’s been five years since Wanda Sykes’ stint in 2009.
Strong has the chops to pull it off, given her role on Saturday Night Live and her brief gig anchoring the Weekend Update desk. She knows how to talk to a crowd, and anybody who has seen her bit “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party” will know exactly how she can steal a scene.
She is so adept at getting us to laugh at her while making us feel comfortable laughing at others the she will undoubtedly own the night. She has the kind of energy that is hard to look away from, and the stage presence that feels like she is speaking directly to the back row. Strong will be adorable, clever, and buffer all the awkward tension the roast inevitably calls up.
Plus, growing up as the daughter of AP Bureau chief Bill Strong, Strong knows her way around media types. There are few things that offer such sheer pleasure as seeing a badass woman hold her own in front of a crowd that is eating out of her palm. Meanwhile, we’ve sure been missing Strong at the Weekend Update desk. Maybe her performance at the WHCD will remind Lorne Michaels how solid she is in the anchor’s chair.
