Eric Adams has some nicknames for his many opponents

New York City Mayor Eric Adams took aim at his challengers during his portion of the annual Inner Circle charity show Saturday, seeking to get the last laugh of the night several days after announcing he’d be ditching them and the Democratic primary to run as an independent candidate in the general election. 

The 102-year-old parody musical performance brings New York City journalists, the mayor and much of the political realm together each year to poke fun at each other while reflecting on the biggest events in politics via song and dance – no small feat given the recent news cycle. This year’s performance was dubbed “Beg Your Pardon,” in reference to the mayor’s recently dismissed legal troubles and how the Trump administration helped him escape them. 

Of course, like the previous years, Adams arrived at the notoriously lengthy spectacle late, thus missing most of the jokes about him. When it was his turn to deliver his rebuttal though, he seized the opportunity to share his narrative on the events of the past year – and to crack some jokes about himself and the field of candidates vying to make him a one-term mayor. 

“Don’t forget to tip your bartenders, I need the campaign donations,” Adams quipped, addressing attendees clustered around tables at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. “Speaking of votes, who are the other candidates anyway? I’m not the best with names so let’s see.” 

Proceeding to assign them nicknames, he dubbed former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who has been out of office since he unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2021 “Scott can’t get any stranger” and “Scott Linger.” State Sen. Jessica Ramos was “Jessica Vamos please get out of the race.” He called city comptroller Brad Lander “Brad Pander” – displaying a rather unsettling image of the comptroller’s face photoshopped on a panda and riffing about Lander’s evolution on “defund the police.” State Sen. Zellnor Myrie was compared to “fucking Urkel” of the sitcom “Family Matters” and Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani was “don’t mess with the Zohran,” a reference to the movie where Adam Sandler plays an Israeli soldier. “Wait a minute. This joke’s not going to work,” the mayor said. “You know he doesn’t support Israel.” Pretending like he’d forgotten the City Council speaker, the mayor mused, “who else am I missing? That’s right there’s Adrienne Adams, but everyone forgets about her.” All but Mamdani were in attendance Saturday night. 

Unsurprisingly, Adams concluded his monologue taking aim at front-runner former Gov. Andrew Cuomo – specifically Cuomo’s longtime aides. 

“At least a few of you here are probably planning to vote for Cuomo, but be careful with what you wish for,” Adams said, addressing the journalists in the room. “If you think me, (Deputy Mayor for Communications) Fabien (Levy), and (Press Secretary) Kayla (Mamelak Altus) are bad, just think about having Rich Azzopardi and Melissa DeRosa yell at you for the next four years.”