Mark your calendars: The 2016 WHCA Dinner will be on Sat., April 30

The 2016 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner will be held on Sat., April 30.  Mark your calendars now!  You can watch the event live on C-SPAN starting sometime after 10pm eastern.

WHCA represents the White House press corps in its dealing with the administration on coverage-related issues.  Every spring, they hold a black-tie dinner at a Washington, D.C., hotel that is attended most years by the President and First Lady.  Unofficially, the event is called the "nerd prom."  (Make sure to follow #NerdProm on Twitter that day; there's also a movie you can watch about the event that's actually called Nerd Prom: Inside Washington's Wildest Week).  It's the one night where Washington's political establishment (members of the administration, elected officials, and the press) dress up in formal wear and rub elbows with Hollywood celebrities.  (Full disclosure: I once saw a distant relative, a celebrity in the art world, attending a dinner years ago.  That was very cool.)

After the dinner, the president makes formal remarks, as does an invited speaker.  What makes this event so much fun is that the president's remarks are always filled with jokes (most often self-deprecating comments mixed with biting shots at rivals in both parties), and the invited speaker is a top-shelf comedian!  Here's video of the remarks last year from President Obama (22:10) and from Cicely Strong (22:49), a Saturday Night Live cast member, who was the invited speaker.

This year's invited speaker is Larry Wilmore, host of Comedy Central's "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore."

Photo: Peter Yang/Comedy Central

I watch this event every year and the speeches are always entertaining and often hysterical.  Watch the speeches live, then share and discuss with your students the following week.