Amber Ruffin says she was relieved, in hindsight, to have been removed from hosting the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner after realizing her jokes would not have aligned with the expectations of the organizers. Speaking on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Ruffin described the cancellation as both disappointing and clarifying.
She had been scheduled to headline the April 26 gala in Washington, D.C., but was dropped four weeks before the event. According to reporting confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, outgoing WHCA president Eugene Daniels informed association members on March 29 that the board had voted unanimously to disinvite her following weeks of internal debate.
The decision followed a resurfaced clip from The Daily Beast podcast, in which Ruffin referred to the Trump administration as “kind of a bunch of murderers” and rejected the request to target both parties in her material. “There’s no way I’m gonna be freaking doing that, dude. Under no circumstances,” she said in the interview.
Appearing on Colbert’s show Tuesday night, Ruffin said she believed the political moment makes it unworkable to balance criticism across party lines. “We are at a point now where one side is snatching people up off the street and putting them on a plane,” she said. “And the other side is, you know, not doing that.”
Ruffin acknowledged she was upset when she first received the news. “I was really, really sad for like two hours,” she said. “But then I had a brunch, [and] then I felt great.”
Looking back at her prepared material, she said it became clear that the content would not have been accepted by the room. “After they fired me, I looked back at my Google doc and was like: This would have been bad. They would not have liked it.”
Ruffin didn’t share individual jokes, but she did describe how she had intended to end the set. “This administration is trying to get you to hate other people, and that’s not your natural state,” she had written. “Human beings are made to love one another. They got you by convincing you that you’re filled with hate, and you absolutely aren’t. It’s the opposite of what you’re made for.”
She told Colbert that expressing those thoughts publicly now made her grateful the speech was never delivered. “Saying that out loud now makes me glad that I got canceled.”
Ruffin originally expected her appearance on Colbert’s show to serve as a post-event recap. “I thought I was gonna be here talking about some, ‘Oh yeah, I did such a good job,’ or ‘Oh well, you know, it’s a tough house,’” she said. “I didn’t think I’d be here going, ‘Yeah, well, my big mouth got me in trouble.’”
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner went ahead with Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost as the host. When asked about the decision to move forward without Donald Trump or a featured comedian, Daniels told Vanity Fair that “this year, this was the right move,” and added that the attendees felt the evening delivered on expectations.
Ruffin briefly addressed the situation late last month on Late Night With Seth Meyers, but her appearance with Colbert marked the first time she shared specific thoughts about the disinvitation and her writing process for the event.
