--- title: White House Correspondents Dinner: Barack Obama's History description: It's one of Washington's goofier rituals: Each year, the president makes an appearance at the White House Correspondents Association dinner and tells jokes. The jokes... canonical: https://time.com/4312654/white-house-correspondents-association-dinner-obama-jokes/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-29T16:42:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:09:13.660Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Obama's Presidency, As Told Through His Jokes og:description: All of his appearances at the White House Correspondents Association dinner. og:url: https://time.com/4312654/white-house-correspondents-association-dinner-obama-jokes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93cc2d89a3e1858b/69889137cd1bbadb177007cd/barack-obama-white-house-correspondents-dinner-jokes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Barack Obama Addresses White House Correspondents Dinner og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Obama's Presidency, As Told Through His Jokes twitter:description: All of his appearances at the White House Correspondents Association dinner. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93cc2d89a3e1858b/69889137cd1bbadb177007cd/barack-obama-white-house-correspondents-dinner-jokes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch the History of Obama's Presidency, as Told Through His Jokes > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Apr 29, 2016 4:42 PM UTC  President Barack Obama smiles at the annual White House Correspondent's Association Gala at the Washington Hilton hotel April 25, 2015 in Washington. President Barack Obama smiles at the annual White House Correspondent's Association Gala at the Washington Hilton hotel April 25, 2015 in Washington. Olivier Douliery—Press Pool/Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Apr 29, 2016 4:42 PM UTC It’s one of Washington’s goofier rituals: Each year, the president makes an appearance at the White House Correspondents Association dinner and tells jokes. The jokes tend to be topical: about the state of the presidency, things in the news, even re-election attempts. But that makes them a great time capsule of what was going on in the Administration that year. In this four-minute video, we’ve compiled the jokes that President Obama told at his previous appearances that show how things have changed since he took office in 2009. But there’s still time for a few more jokes, as Obama will speak Saturday night for the final time at the annual dinner. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4312654/white-house-correspondents-association-dinner-obama-jokes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4312654/white-house-correspondents-association-dinner-obama-jokes/"},"headline":"Watch the History of Obama's Presidency, as Told Through His Jokes","datePublished":"2016-04-29T16:42:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:09:13.660Z","description":"It's one of Washington's goofier rituals: Each year, the president makes an appearance at the White House Correspondents Association dinner and tells jokes. 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