Judd Apatow skewers Biden and Trump in awards monologue

Filmmaker was speaking at the DGA Awards, where Christopher Nolan triumphed

Filmmaker Judd Apatow cracked jokes about Joe Biden and Donald Trump at the Directors Guild of America Awards on Saturday (10 February).

The man behind movies from Knocked Up to The 40-Year-Old Virgin opened his monologue with a dig at Bradley Cooper, who wore a prosthetic nose to play Jewish composter Leonard Bernstein in the biopic Maestro.

“I’m your host Bradley Cooper in an even more beguiling Jewish nose,” said the 56-year-old director.

Then, noting the age of the likely nominees for the US presidential election, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, he joked that the race is going to be between “a guy old enough to have met Hitler and a guy who wishes he had”.

Earlier this week, Biden angrily defended his age as a reporter asked him about voter concerns about his mental acuity.

“That’s your judgment, that is your judgment. That is not the judgment of the press," the president responded, raising his voice.

At the time, Biden was responding to an investigation that found he mishandled classified documents and said he struggled to recall key life events such as when his son Beau died or when he served as vice president.

Biden, Apatow, Trump (Getty)

“My memory is fine,” Biden said as he grew visibly angry in the White House.

Meanwhile, also this week, Trump addressed a crowd of supporters at the National Rifle Association’s Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he made several surprising comments, including claims that he saw a migrant stealing a refrigerator.

The 2024 US general election will be held 5 November.

At the DGA Awards, Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan, Christopher Storer of FX’s The Bear and Peter Hoar of HBO’s The Last of Us were the top winners.

Nolan is already a contender for a best directing Oscar for his story covering the rise and fall of the father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer, played by Irish actor Cillian Murphy.

The director told the DGA audience in Beverly Hills, California: “I don’t [want to] leave the stage without your understanding how much this means to me.

“The idea that my peers would think I deserve this means everything to me. The idea that my kids would think that I deserve this means everything.”