Comedian Whitney Cummings goes viral after roasting CNN, Democrats live on air

Viewers of CNN’s annual New Year’s Eve countdown show were in for a surprise when a guest comedian launched into a merciless skewering of Democratic sacred cows.

Comic Whitney Cummings was trending on social media Wednesday after torching top Democrats in her live on-air roast of 2024 on “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen.”

Ms. Cummings started out by saying that she’s now playing 3,000-seat venues, “which is about the viewership of CNN these days,” then took jabs at Hunter Biden and the WNBA before turning to politics.

“The 2024 election fried our brains. The Democrats couldn’t hold a primary because they were too busy holding a body up, right?” said Ms. Cummings ahead of the Wednesday night ball-drop on New York City’s Time Square.

There was silence from the hosts, after which she said: “Are we still rolling? Am I off?”

Mr. Cooper said nothing while Mr. Cohen encouraged her to “go for it.”

So she did.

“It was amazing the pro-choice party didn’t give their party one when it came to the presidential candidate,” said Ms. Cummings. “Kamala was forced on us so hard you’d think she was patented by Pfizer.”

’Still not laughing was Mr. Cooper, so she plouwed on, ending her four-minute bit by saying that “since I only have a minute left live on establishment media, why don’t we just say a bunch of things that I know they’ll never cover?”

Jokes about the Biden administration may be standard fare on shows like Fox News Channel’s “Gutfeld!” but not CNN, known for its left-tilting, Democrat-friendly slant.

Whitney Cummings rips CNN’s poor ratings, Democrats for propping up ‘a body’ a.k.a. Joe Biden in the election https://t.co/ymDUaC2Zw7

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 1, 2025

Mr. Cooper said at the end of her sketch that “I only understood like half the references,” but his lack of reaction to her sometimes savage quips did not go unnoticed by social-media mavens.

“Whitney Cummings doing a 4 min bit while Anderson Cooper listens completely stone faced was extremely awkward,” said Austin Robert on X.

Collin Rugg, co-owner of Trending Politics, said on X that Mr. Cooper was “completely speechless after Whitney Cummings says Dems couldn’t hold a primary because they were too busy holding up a dead body.”

The 4 1/2 hour show, which Mr. Cohen and Mr. Cooper have hosted for eight years, was memorable for other reasons.

The longtime friends continued their annual tradition of doing tequila shots at the top of each hour, a practice that was slapped with a one-year ban in 2023 after Mr. Cohen apparently overdid it the year before.

The joke is that Mr. Cooper rarely imbibes, meaning that he typically makes faces after downing the shots and then begins giggling as the show progresses.