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"The jokes weren't as good five weeks ago, but neither is the guest list," quipped President Obama, the evening's guest of honor, making reference to Friday night's Washington Convention Center event, seen by many as the ugly stepsister of the more glamorous dinner for White House correspondents, attended by A-listers from Hollywood.

In a rare turn, the president left the dinner early, but not before delivering some clever one-liners, poking fun at himself and the hundreds of broadcasters and politicians assembled.

"This was supposed to be my date night. I had planned to take Michelle out for Thai food in Bangkok," he said.

The president explained that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not in attendance because of the broken elbow she suffered on her way to the White House last week. He kidded that perhaps Richard C. Holbrooke, his special representative to the Middle East, had sprayed WD-40 on the sidewalk, causing her slip.

Mr. Obama intimated that he had been up tossing and turning, trying to think of new jokes to tell, and in the middle of the night finally turned to NBC's Brian Williams and asked his opinion.

This was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the looming presence of Mr. Williams in the Obama family quarters while filming "Inside the Obama White House" for NBC.

"He's very good at this sort of thing. I guess that's why he got elected," CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said to The Washington Times on his way out of the dinner, praising the president's ease in front of a sometimes critical crowd.

The snickering continued with the entertainer of the evening, John Hodgman, a regular on "The Daily Show." Mr. Hodgman rhapsodized about having a "Star Trek" fan in the Oval Office, and, at one point, Mr. Hodgman and Mr. Obama exchanged the mysterious Vulcan salute, famously used by Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock on the popular 1960s science-fiction show.