A Delusional Dinner

David Carr writes in the New York Times: "Rich Little, the Carson-era comedian and impersonator, was wheeled in to help the audience forget last year's debacle when Stephen Colbert opened both barrels on all parties, briefly bringing the proceedings some cultural relevance

"Because he failed to acknowledge both the propriety and the primacy of the establishment press, Mr. Colbert bombed inside the room, drawing disapproving looks from all quarters and little initial coverage. But in the days following his performance, the normally prosaic C-Span feed of the event was viewed approximately 2.7 million times in just 48 hours on YouTube.

"This year, the correspondents' association decided to regain custody of the event. . . .

"Mr. Little, a one-man time machine, obliged by dialing the room back decades to a time when Uncle Walter told us that's the way it is, Johnny Carson tucked us all in and a bit about Richard Nixon singing 'My Way' was considered naughty fun. . . . 'And you thought Colbert was bad,' Mr. Little said after one particularly acute miss."

Here's how Little wrapped things up: "Thank you very much. I appreciate your reaction.. . . . And you know? It's good to laugh. I know we're going through troubled times right now, but you gotta laugh."

Greg Mitchell and Joe Strupp write for Editor and Publisher: "Some in the crowd walked out in the middle of the routine -- far more than left during Colbert's performance last year."

My fellow washingtonpost.com blogger Mary Ann Akers apparently hangs out with a more charitable crowd than I do.

"Most people who endured Rich Little's performance at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night had the same reaction . . . bless his heart," she writes. As in, "bless his heart for enthusiastically saying 'yes' and agreeing to perform after so many others said 'no thanks.' . . .

"This year's lead organizer of the event, WHCA President Steve Scully of C-SPAN, went after a long list of big dogs. But they all turned him down. . . .

"'Regardless of what you think of Rich Little, he was really excited to do this,' Scully said."

I ran into Little and Scully at the Bloomberg after-party, and I had to ask:

Rich, tough crowd, huh? "They were pretty good," he said.