Sophie Grégoire Trudeau took on her critics and it was HILARIOUS

How do we love to hate the Trudeaus? On Saturday night, at the press gallery dinner in Ottawa, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau counted the ways.

In a refreshing display of salty sass, Sophie hijacked husband Justin’s speech and performed a comedic bit aimed squarely at their critics. Previously known (and often attacked) for her effusive enthusiasm and hand-over-heart emotional displays, she proved this weekend she can give as good as she gets.

And it was a good reminder that she gets a lot. In five minutes of glorious self-awareness on stage, she referenced no less than seven controversies and viral moments that have erupted since Justin Trudeau became prime minister in the fall. In no particular order:

That time Sophie wore an Oscar De La Renta dress for a photo shoot in Vogue: Critics had a field day when Vogue published a profile of Justin, complete with a shot of he and Sophie (wearing Oscar De La Renta) gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes. Surely Canada’s newly minted prime minister had better things to do in his first 30 days in office? And if they insist on such spectacle, couldn’t they showcase a Canadian designer? The burn: Shortly after she takes the stage, Justin asks Sophie who she’s wearing. “Thank you so much for asking!” Sophie exclaims, prancing up and down like a school girl, and then adding sharply: “It’s all Canadian. I’M WEARING CANADIAN.”

That time Sophie broke into song: At a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event in January, Sophie used her turn at the mic to sing an original song she wrote for her daughter. Critics delighted in the awkwardness of it all, and questioned her judgment to, as a white woman, sing a personal song at an event dedicated to celebrating a black civil rights icon. The burn: The press gallery dinner, Sophie said excitedly, is “the best chance I have to express myself in song! And you were all so kind to me the last time I sang!”

That time Sophie asked for help: Last month Canada’s first lady caused a media storm when, in an interview with French-language newspaper Le Soleil, she expressed a need for more staff, to carry out her duties. Her detractors were not impressed. The burn: Before breaking into a blues-style jam she said, in a deliciously petulant tone: “In order to do this, I need a pianist, a cellist, a violinist. Because I need a team. I NEED TO FEEL SUPPORTED.”

That time Justin Trudeau took selfies with the public: Okay, this is not a one-time thing. He does it a lot. It’s about accessibility, he has said, not about image. The burn: The blues number continued with this volley: “Forget his selfies” [Ba-dump] “Cuz it’s ALL about me!”

That time the Trudeaus hired two nannies: When news broke that the Trudeaus would be employing not one, but two tax-payer funded nannies, backlash was swift and “nannygate” was born. The burn: The blues song continued with a nod to this, and another accessory-fuelled controversy: “The broach, the nannies, my hair” [Ba-dump] “SophieGATE everywhere!”

That time a picture of Justin doing “peacock pose” went viral: Yes, it was old — from 2013. But the Internet lost its mind. The burn: After calling on her “team” to lay down a yoga mat (“I don’t roll or unroll mats. Ugh. They tend to be dirty.”) Sophie effortlessly strikes a complicated arm balance pose, and continued her bit from there.

That time Justin muscled his way across the House of Commons: With the assisted-dying bill on the table, a visibly frustrated Trudeau marched across the floor and bumped NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau in the chest. That bump (and the chaos that followed, including NDP leader Tom Mulcair screaming, “What kind of man elbows a woman?!”) spurned “elbowgate,” which dominated media coverage for days. The burn: “You should be doing more of this,” Sophie, still in the yoga pose, said sweetly to Justin. “Because you’d be hitting less people, my love.” She then looked over to Mulcair and added, “This is really good for anger management. Tom, you wanna try it?”

That time they stared dreamily into each other’s eyes, and made people really uncomfortable. Again, they do this a lot — like here, for instance, and here. Most famously, they did it in that Vogue shoot. The couple’s constant PDAs were characterized in the media as part of the Trudeau’s “charm offensive,” something Sophie has denied. “Being real is not a strategy. The way we are in the world is real,” she told Chatelaine’s Rachel Giese in the spring. The burn: At the end of Sophie’s bit, the two of them embraced in a final tableau mirroring that now-famous Vogue pose, and held it for about 10 seconds too long. Whispering “Did they get the shot?” to each other at the end was a final wink, a reminder that they recognize pageantry for what it is, and we should too.

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