Obama's last laugh at White House Correspondents' Dinner

(AAP)
(AAP)

United States President Barack Obama has delivered his last comedic address at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

The event, on Saturday evening in Washington DC (local time), is a night of playful ribbing of both politicians and the news media.

The black-tie event, which Mr Obama has previously joked is "a night when Washington celebrates itself", brings together journalists, celebrities and power-brokers from Capitol Hill.

He opened his monologue, joking: "It is an honour to be at my last, and perhaps the last, Correspondents' Dinner."

He soon followed with a line that was about as close to an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as he could give.

"Next year some someone else will be standing here in this spot, and it's anyone's guess who she will be."

He shared messages of thanks and support to many people in the room, including US Vice President Joe Biden, whom he thanked for "not shooting anybody in the face" -- a reference to former Vice President Dick Cheney, who shot a colleague in a hunting accident 10 years ago.

A lot of his speech addressed successes and failures in his time in office, and the current election season.

"Eight years ago, I said it was time to change the tone of our politics. In hindsight, I clearly should have been more specific."

The speech drew a lot of applause from the journalists and celebrities in the room, before Mr Obama finished with the words "Obama out" and dropped the mic.

Newshub.