Obama gets 'ruff' with White House opponents

The President displayed his talent for stand-up at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner (Reuters)

It was the annual White House correspondents' dinner on Saturday, hosted by the late-night talk star Jimmy Kimmel, and the Comedian-in-Chief Barack Obama didn't waste the opportunity, poking fun at himself and his administration (a little) and at his foes in the overheated political chamber of an American election year (a lot).

The jokes - and the audience including the likes of George Clooney and Lindsay Lohan seemed to get them all - began even before he arrived at the podium in a Washington hotel ballroom. Lampooning his recent clanger being caught on a "hot mic" talking privately to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, he was heard muttering: "What am I doing here? I'm opening for Jimmy Kimmel and telling knock-knock jokes to Kim Kardashian."

Other gags included a faux political ad for Mitt Romney, now the all-but certain Republican challenger in November, referencing the time he put his dog on the car roof during a family holiday. It showed Mr Romney proudly posing on the steps to Air Force One with a dog crate attached to the fuselage.

A little nostalgia for the 2008 campaign crept in also. Evoking Sarah Palin's line about pit bulls and lipstick at the Republican convention that year, as well as recent rumours that he ate dog meat in Indonesia as a child, Mr Obama asked: "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?" The answer: A pit bull is delicious."

Mr Obama then seemed to recall that last year's dinner had coincided with the killing of Osama bin Laden. "We finally delivered justice to one of the world's most notorious individuals," he said, before images not of Bin Laden but Donald Trump appeared on screens.

Established by the White House Correspondents' Association in 1920, the annual dinner is a ritual in the Washington calendar, and every President is expected to show off their funny bone. And if they don't naturally have one, the speech writers will find it for them.