Given all that’s going on, let’s take a quick look at what some of the late night and TV standup comedians are saying.
Late Night political jokes have traditionally been a barometer of what’s being talked on the street and the conventional wisdom. Generally comedy functions best if a joke is couched within a set of shared assumptions. There have been periods where the Democrats have been the target of jokes but right now it’s the Republicans.
Here’s a cross section of them. Note that jokes about Mark Foley are the rage and the largest number of topical jokes listed are by NBC’s Jay Leno (who still is considered one of the nicest guys in comedy and peforms on Sundays at a comedy club near L.A. because he likes to):
–“The Republicans finally got some good news over the weekend. The North Koreans set off a nuclear bomb. Thank God. It was so powerful it knocked the Mark Foley story right off the front page. And knocked him off the page he was on, too.” –Jay Leno
–“It’s interesting. The president’s approval rating is at an all-time low, North Korea’s setting off bombs, Iraq is a mess, the Foley scandal keeps getting worst. Even the Democrats might not be able to blow this election.” –Jay Leno
–“A very scary situation in North Korea, but let’s move on to the good news. As of last night, North Korea has one less bomb.” –Jon Stewart
–“MySpace.com said it is launching a voter registration page targeting young adults. Sadly, the only person that the MySpace page has attracted so far is former Congressman Mark Foley.” –Conan O’Brien
–“Countries all around the world are reacting to North Korea’s nuclear test. The U.S. condemned it, China said it was wrong, France surrendered.” –Jay Leno
–“There are more and more details coming out about this Foley page scandal. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert has been meeting with everyone in Washington to figure a way out of this. Well, not meeting with everyone. I think it’s fair to say he’s never met with Jenny Craig.” –Jay Leno
–“Former President Bill Clinton has now struck a deal with several major food companies to supply schools with snacks that have less fat, less sugar and less salt. This is all part of Clinton’s new program, ‘No Child Left With A Big Behind.’.” –Jay Leno
–“It was reported this week that a $20 million provision has been placed in the military spending bill to pay for a party celebrating America’s victory in Iraq and Afghanistan. So save the date: February 8th, 3046.” –Amy Poehler
–“There is a scandal going on and every day it seems to get worse. Now more pages came forward today saying this thing with Foley goes back 11 years. Rush Limbaugh said today, ‘You see, another threat Clinton completely ignored.’ He also said, ‘This would have never happened if Al Gore didn’t invent the Internet.’.” –Bill Maher
–“I think this whole thing could have been nipped in the bud if somebody pulled Mark Foley aside at some point and showed him nude photos of Dennis Hastert.” –Bill Maher
–“Dennis Hastert now says that he did know about the (Mark Foley) e-mails, but was unaware, he says, that they were so sexually explicit. He said, ‘My God, I didn’t even read the Patriot Act.’.” –Bill Maher
–“Democrats accused Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of waving a white flag for saying the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas cannot be won militarily. Things must be bad in Afghanistan if Bill Frist is ready to give up. Remember, this is the guy that thought we could still fix Terri Schiavo.” –Seth Meyers
–“Yesterday, Hastert defended himself by saying he had no idea what was going on. Hey, don’t laugh. It worked for President Bush.” –Jay Leno
–“Congress is now already taking measures to reduce incidents between congressmen and pages. For instance, congressmen are no longer allowed to hand-pick their pages from MySpace.com.” –Jay Leno
–“For the last two years of the Clinton presidency, we told like 9 million Monica Lewinsky jokes. Now we’re here tonight talking about Republican Congressman Foley having cybersex with young boys. So, for the record, forget Fox News. We’re the fair and balanced network.” –Jay Leno
–“Hastert also told reporters he will not be pressured to step down as House Speaker in the wake of the Foley scandal. Some say Hastert is afraid to step down, as there’s a good chance he’ll go right through the floor.” –Amy Poehler
—“Remember the good old days when the only people that Republicans were screwing were the poor.” –Jay Leno
–“Last night was the season premier of Lost.In this opening episode, Congressional Democrats found themselves inhabiting a bizarre, unfamiliar place–the moral highground.” –Jay Leno
–“What a month this has been for Republicans. George Allen’s been on the front page and Mark Foley’s been on every other page.” –Jay Leno
–“And House Speaker Dennis Hastert is under fire because he claims if he was told about Foley’s sex scandal a few years ago, he doesn’t remember it. Really? …How bad is the rest of the Republicans behavior if news of one having cybersex with teenage boys isn’t that memorable?” –Jay Leno
–“The real battle now is how the GOP leadership handled the allegations. My guess is with some sort of latex glove.” –Jon Stewart
–“Is the Foley scandal the fault of the head of the Republican Congressional Committee, Tom Reynolds? [on screen: Reynolds saying, ‘I did what most people would do in a workplace. I heard something, I took it to my supervisor’]. I took it to my supervisor? Tom Reynolds — congressman or assistant manager at Applebee’s?.” –Jon Stewart
–“In fact, some people are calling for term limits. Term limits? We need sperm limits.” –Jay Leno
—“Congressmen are now on their five-week break. Did you know they were off? No, you don’t even know when they’re working. Anyway, they have five weeks to campaign for their upcoming elections. You know, they’re traveling around the country talking about the most dangerous threats to our country — flag-burning and gay marriage.” –Jay Leno
—“Earlier tonight, ABC premiered its current and new episode of ‘Lost.’ It’s all about the Republicans’ election chances.” –David Letterman
–“You know what’s really the most damaging? ABC is reporting that Mark Foley interrupted a vote on the House floor to have online phone sex with a 16-year-old student. Say what you want about Bill Clinton. He could sit at his desk, have sex and work at the same time. He was a multi-tasker.” –Jay Leno
–“As soon as the news broke, Foley checked himself into an alcohol treatment facility. Alcohol is an amazing thing. It turns completely normal politicians into perverts, and completely normal actors into anti-Semites.” –Jimmy Kimmel
–“But in fairness to the Republicans, let me just throw this out — who invented the Internet? That’s right — Al Gore, a Democrat. If it wasn’t for him, none of this would have happened. Run with it Fox News.” –Jimmy Kimmel
—“It’s simple. You drink, you forget things — especially things that could endanger minors. And I know people are wondering why Condoleezza Rice can’t remember a July 2001 meeting with George Tenet where he warned her an al Qaeda attack was likely, even though White House records prove the meeting happened. She probably just blacked out. She was playing a drinking game. Every time you hear George Tenet say ‘imminent,’ you take a shot.” –Stephen Colbert
–“The number one movie this week is ‘Open Season,’ about young male pages working for Congress.” –Jay Leno
—“This is like the worst thing to happen to congressional Republicans since last Thursday…Most people think GOP stands for Gay Old Pedophile.” –Jay Leno
–“This scandal with Foley has finally led to some bipartisan cooperation in Congress. For example, Republican leaders had to meet with Ted Kennedy to find out what’s the best rehab center.” –Jay Leno
–“Have you all been following this scandal in Washington with ex-Congressman Mark Foley? Well, a couple of days ago, he checked himself into rehab. It had gotten so bad he had to go out and develop a drinking problem. The ex-congressman, if nothing else, is contrite. He says when he gets out of rehab, he wants a fresh start and to turn over a new page.” –David Letterman
–“I have the latest on the Mark Foley sex scandal. Apparently, new evidence that just came out shows that former Congressman Mark Foley once engaged in Internet sex with a former page while a vote was being taken in the House. Apparently, instead of voting ‘Aye,’ Foley voted ‘Oh God yes!'” –Conan O’Brien
–“Bob Woodward’s got a new book out there, folks. It’s about the Bush administration and Iraq. It’s called ‘State of Denial.’ I assume it’s about the Democrats. They just can’t accept that freedom is on the march.” –Stephen Colbert
–“On Friday, Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida stepped down because, well, he’s in big trouble. If you were watching Fox News, you might have missed this story — they’re still rerunning that Clinton video.” –Stephen Colbert
–“Foley sent what appeared to be inappropriate e-mails and text messages to underage male congressional pages. Evidently, the Republican leadership knew about it anywhere from 11 months ago to 60 months ago. Now people are calling for House Speaker Denny Hastert to step down. That’s totally unfair. He’s a former high school wrestling coach. What would he know about the harassment of young boys? All he knows is if you pull it, you ice it.” –Stephen Colbert
–“How ’bout that Florida Congressman Mark Foley? At least the Democrats waited until the interns were 18.” –David Letterman
—“This incident is changing the way big companies do business in Washington — like tobacco companies are now hiring underage boys as lobbyists because they know that’s the best way to reach congressmen.” –Jay Leno
–“Bob Woodward has a new book…It claims the Bush administration has bungled the war in Iraq. When reached for comment, President Bush said, ‘Just one more reason to hate books.’.” –Conan O’Brien
–“The White House claims that President Bush is getting so many requests to campaign with other Republicans that he’s running out of time. Not surprisingly, the requests are all coming from Democrats.” –Conan O’Brien
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.