A Comedians Perspective on Michelle Wolf Roasting Sarah Sanders

It's the big event of the weekend everyone is still talking about.

This past weekend, it was time for the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, which is a dinner to celebrate the media, the First Amendment, and everything in-between. The big story from the event is undoubtedly the verbal evisceration of Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the hands of comedian Michelle Wolf.

Several outlets and Twitter users were quick to attack Wolf's unfiltered jabs at Sanders saying they were "too mean" and things like that. I'm here to say, as a comedian, Wolf did exactly what she was supposed to do: entertain.

I may not be the level of comic who has any right to defend the rights of someone more prominent than me, but I have been doing stand-up for almost a decade and have attending many roasts. The idea that Michelle Wolf somehow "went too far" against Sanders are completely ludicrous. Sanders knew the risks of what might be said before going to the event and still went (at least to our knowledge) willingly. Whether it's justified or not, the current administration is ripe for being maligned at the hands of even the most novice comics.

Wolf, however, is no novice, and knew exactly what she was doing. There's been so much focus on what she said to Sanders that the fact that she made fun of herself, Hillary Clinton, democrats, and everyone else, has been completely forgotten. The only reason people care about what she said to Sanders is because she actually attended the dinner.

I have to give props to both Wolf and Sanders in this situation. Michelle Wolf could have backed off after seeing how Sanders was reacting, but instead, she leaned into it and really committed to what she was saying. To not do-so would have been disingenuous. Every comic has to commit to what they are saying or else the audience is going to see through it. However, what a comic commits to isn't going to be for everyone.

I give props to Sanders for actually attending the dinner and taking the jabs. Yes, did it look like she was about to cry, yeah, but that happens when words cut very, very deep. She probably wasn't expecting to be attacked so harshly, but still, she kept her composure which is to be commended. I've attended and participated in roasts before; everything is fair game. I've heard the absolute worst things about me from my friends all in the name of humor, and I've given it right back. It has to be tough to hear the kind of jokes Sanders heard without the comfort of knowing that it was friends who were saying it.

Those saying that Sarah Huckabee-Sanders was being attacked for her looks must not have been watching the same clip as the rest of us. If anything, Wolf complimented her on how well she does her eye make-up. A fact the comedian was quick to point out on Twitter:

At the end of the day, Michelle Wolf is a comedian and was exercising her First Amendment rights at an event celebrating those rights. If Sarah Sanders has any issue with what was said to her at the event, well, maybe she should have gone to that rally with that other guy who didn't attend...