This week it was the annual joke show on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion, that liberal gem of a radio show hosted by Garrison Keillor. Bush got plenty of come-uppance (What were the best three years of George Bush’s life? Grade 5), but Keillor is generous with his humor, and flawless in his delivery, so you should really listen to the whole show rather than just read the list of the best jokes he collected for the year.

Practically nobody emerged unscathed: not Kerry (John Kerry walks into a bar. The bartender says, “Why the long face?”), not Martha Stewart, not Episcopalians (Why can’t Episcopalians play chess? They can’t tell the difference between a bishop and a queen), not Unitarians (How do you get a Unitarian family to leave town? You burn a question mark on their front lawn) not Michael Jackson, not Janet Jackson, not even Ronald Reagan (President Reagan didn’t vote in the California election because recall’s not his thing any more), not Helen Keller, not the Amish and not the blind (How does the blind parachutist know when he’s getting close to the ground? The leash goes slack).

And certainly not the Swedes, for which Keillor has a soft spot:

PP: A Swedish guy likes to go to bed with two women, so when he falls asleep they can talk to each other. He is so repressed, he blushes if someone says “Intersection”. Sometimes he’ll get drunk and go downtown and spend the night in a warehouse.
 
GK: A warehouse?
 
PP: They’re bad spellers, too. [Script]

Well, okay, it was funny when he said it. You can complain here.