Where Have All the Good Jokes Gone

Jumping marines don't ask or tell. They just demonstrate.

I watched the recent White House Correspondents' Dinner speeches, and I thought there were reasonably funny and light-hearted moments, although there were a couple of mean-spirited jabs, especially when comedian Jimmy Kimmel sniped:

The President was very candid in an interview with the Atlantic a couple of weeks ago when he called Kanye West a jackass. No offense sir, but I think you got the wrong West. I think you meant Allen.

Allen West was in the audience, and took the "joke" with stride.

I thought Obama was generally funny. But he was also dead serious at some moments. His took a mean-spirited jab at Sarah Palin with: "What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? A pit bull is delicious." Of course, this is in reference to his dog-eating childhood in Indonesia, but at the same time, he managed to slyly and cleverly denigrate Sarah Palin, who used this famous line in her Vice-Presidential campaign:

"I love those hockey moms. You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick"

Mitt Romney's wife, Ann Romney, proudly says that she raised fours sons as a stay-at-home mom, after news commentator Hilary Rosen quipped that Ann Romney "never worked a day in her life." I think ordinary women are beginning to realize the importance of child rearing as a sole activity and not intertwined with some career oriented job. But the true pit bulls are still out there, who have an underlying hatred of motherhood permeating through their blood, and who see no independent value in the role.

Obama's "joke" on homosexuals in the military was also dead serious:

In my first term as president, I repealed Don't Ask, Don't Tell. In my second term, I will replace that with 'It's Raining Men.'

"It's raining men" is a popular song, and the phrase is used as a code identified with homosexuality. With his "it's raining men" promise, Obama simply means that he will not give up on allowing homosexuals to enter the United States Army, and that he will do so with renewed vigor and force for his new Presidential term. He is making a campaign promise right there.