film / tv / substack / social media / lists / web / celeb / pajiba love / misc / about / cbr
film / tv / substack / web / celeb

trump-clinton-al-smith.jpg

The Internet Reacts After Trump Bombs with His Dark, Cringeworthy Roast of Hillary Clinton

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | October 21, 2016 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | October 21, 2016 |

Until it’s happening, I always forget about the Al Smith Dinner, the lighthearted roast where the candidates get together and make fun of each other for charity in honor of the first Catholic to run for president. It’s a great way for the candidates to humanize themselves by joking about their opponent and making fun of themselves.

Unless you have no humanity.

Donald Trump’s speech at the Al Smith Dinner began somewhat harmlessly, but as the speech wore on, it got darker, more awkward, more self-serving, and, well, nastier. By the end, it was no longer a light roasting of Hillary Clinton. It was just another Trump rally speech. Maybe for the first time in the long history of the Al Smith Dinner, a candidate got booed. Trump did not really make any jokes at his own expense. He just made an increasingly dark series of jokes at Clinton’s expense. However, he did make one at his wife’s expense (which received his biggest laughs of the night).

Here’s a highlight reel compiled by the Times, which doesn’t include most of Trump’s nastier jokes (although, it does give a taste of how good Clinton was).

To get a true feel for how unpleasant Trump’s speech was, you have to watch it in its entirety. It was like one of Trump’s debate performances: It just went off the rails by the end and Trump hit his lowest point when Trump joked, “Here she is in public pretending not to hate Catholics.”

Jump to the 10 minute mark if you just want the awkwardness and all the boos.

The Internet was not impressed.

For the record, Hillary crushed it, and even at a roast managed to sound Presidential and funny, without being “nasty,” although Rudy Giuliani might disagree.

Here’s Hillary’s entire speech.