Seth Meyers to headline WHCA dinner

One of Washington's most anticipated social events each year is the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner and, in the months before it happens, everyone starts to wonder who the night's headliner will be. Well, the cat is out of the bag for 2011. POLITICO reports that the next headliner will be Seth Meyers, head writer and cast member of "Saturday Night Live."

As Meyers's biting "Weekend Update" jokes and commentary have increasingly gained currency in the Beltway since he became its sole anchor in 2008, his star has risen too. Recently, he hosted the 2008 and 2009 Webby Awards and the 2010 ESPY Awards on ESPN (he's set to host again in 2011). He's also a growing presence on Twitter, with more than 300,000 followers.

Meyers joins a long line of White House Correspondents Dinner hosts that hail from "Saturday Night Live," including Al Franken, Darrell Hammond and Conan O'Brien. (Meyers joined "Saturday Night Live" in 2001.) Other headliners have included Jon Stewart, Jay Leno, Wanda Sykes and Drew Carey.

The irony of Meyers's hosting the dinner, of course, is that he's been tapped by Washington reporters to perform before Washington reporters, even though it's those very Washington reporters whom he frequently skewers.

"Like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, he keeps with the theme of the Washington media loving the people who tease them the most," said Washingtonian magazine's Garrett Graff in reaction to the news.

But while the gig is high on exposure, it's also high on risk: It's long been considered one of the toughest and most-scrutinized acts in the business. Stewart has called it the moment "where the president and the press corps consummate their loveless marriage."

On one hand, you have Colbert's performance in 2006, which was deemed by some to be too edgy (though it was very popular online), and on the other hand there are stints like Rich Little's in 2007, deemed by most as too tame. Colbert's Comedy Central colleague Stewart defended his performance, saying that "apparently [Colbert] was under the impression that they'd hired him to do what he does every night on television."

And Arianna Huffington wrote that Colbert "strenuously avoided reading anything about his appearance" in the aftermath.

The secret, it seems, is to fall somewhere in between the two extremes in order to please the picky crowd. Another tip for Meyers: Speak up. In the typically packed and expansive room, acoustics are often less than ideal.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly included Lewis Black amongst previous White House Correspondents Dinner entertainers.