US President Barack Obama served as comedian-in-chief on Saturday night, predicting that his second 100 days in office will be so successful that he will wrap them up in record time.

“I must confess I really did not want to be here tonight,” Obama said at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner — an annual gathering of journalists, politicians and Hollywood celebrities. “But I knew I had to come. That’s one more problem that I inherited from George W Bush.”

In the next 100 days, he said he would learn to go off the teleprompter and Vice President Joe Biden, famous for verbal gaffes, “will learn to stay on the prompter.” Obama said he also expected to house-train his new, seven-month-old Portuguese water dog, Bo. “The last thing Tim Geithner needs is someone else treating him like a fire hydrant,” he said, referring to his treasury secretary. Geithner was forced to pay $34,000 in unpaid back taxes before being confirmed to his job and has been criticised for his handling of the financial crisis. “Finally, I believe that my next 100 days will be so successful that I will be able to complete them in 72 days. And on the 73rd day, I will rest,” he joshed.

Obama endured some ribbing from comic Wanda Sykes. Sykes mused about her pride in Obama’s being the country’s first black president. “That’s unless you screw up,” she said. “And then it’s going to be — what’s up with the half-white guy.”