Why Is That Man Smiling?

President Obama and Wanda Sykes at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Saturday. (Pool Photo By Martin H. Simon)

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Let's be clear. The joke was a dud. But you'd think from the scurrying of tiny feet that we were on the verge of appointing a Special Commission on Acceptable Humor. Don't laugh. At this rate, it may be coming.

If Sykes deserves criticism, it's for being un-clever. To be funny, a joke has to reveal some truth buried deep in the collective psyche. As when Sykes said she wouldn't need to waterboard Sean Hannity to get information, because all she'd need to do is put him in a middle seat in coach.

Now that's funny -- not because we infer that Hannity is a diva, but because we're all divas when it comes to the middle seat. We have personal experience with that bit of torture. During a recent four-hour flight wedged between two folks who've apparently yet to decline dessert, I'd have confessed to whatever Sykes wanted for an upgrade to first class.

Alas, the joke on Limbaugh bore no resemblance to truth and therefore wasn't funny. She didn't get under our skin with a scalpel; she hit us over the head with a cudgel. Limbaugh isn't like bin Laden or a Sept. 11 hijacker. His dislike of Obama's policies and his hope that they fail do not equate to hoping the country fails. No one's drug addiction is amusing.

That said, the punch lines weren't as awful as they now seem after numerous reruns. Nothing's funny the 27th time. What's clear, meanwhile, is that even humor has become a partisan affair. If you're not a fan of Limbaugh, you laughed. If you don't like Obama, you were ratified in your certitude that the president isn't up to snuff.

Lost in the frenzy is the more important matter of our thin-skinned intolerance and our reflexive lurch to take offense. We might remind ourselves that it's always the fanatics who can't take a joke.

kparker@kparker.com