It’s a Joke

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

There was an old man in France who used to get up at the crack of dawn every day and sprinkle white powder all around his house. When his neighbor asked him what he was sprinkling, he replied that it was elephant repellant. The neighbor exclaimed “There are no elephants in France!” to which he answered “I guess it must be working then!”

It’s an old joke. I’ve heard it told better. But now there’s an updated version, as reported by Melinda Henneberger:

I like dreamers, so I was really trying to follow what Bill Kristol had to say on the Daily Show last night. The gist of it was that though the war in Iraq had been mismanaged, yes, it had also kept us from being attacked here at home since 9/11, so Bush should get some credit for that.

I didn’t see this segment, so I can’t judge how well Kristol told the joke. I’m guessing it went something like this:

    STEWART: The Iraq War isn’t going so well. What are we trying to accomplish?

    KRISTOL: It’s to keep away al Qaeda.

    STEWART: How is it keeping away al Qaeda?

    KRISTOL: Have there been any al Qaeda attacks in America lately?

    STEWART: No.

    KRISTOL: See? It must be working.

I like the elephant version better.

Update: C&L has the video.

10 thoughts on “It’s a Joke”

  1. It’s actually better. Stewart brought up the first WTC bombing, and how then Al Quaeda hadn’t attacked until 2001, so Clinton deserved more credit than Bush. So Kristol brought up the Cole and the embassy bombings. Stewart countered with Madrid, Bali, et al. And then Kristol broke down and whined like a little brat that Stewart was never this mean to his Democratic guests, wah, wah, wah.

    And while it’s true that Stewart doesn’t usually like to press issues this much, I think it was clear that Stewart is sick and tired of being told that this is a good war. I think he was actually ticked off.

  2. It was embarrassing for Kristol – I had to look away. His weirdest complaint was that Stewart’s staff decided every few months that they needed a neocon to kick around and they would invite him on! D’Oh, then why accept? The man needs the footlights and will do anything to be there….

  3. I liked commenter erinyes’s version of the joke given several months ago where he used Jed clampett and Jethro Bodine to deliver the absurdity of the Bush defenders logic in keeping away the terra-ists. I guess that’s because I see amazing similarities in the intellect and reasoning between Bush and Jethro.

    Jethro says,..”The computer aint never ever been wrong.”

  4. Hey, while we’re giving Bush credit for keeping our shores safe from Al Qaeda, let’s not forget he’s also been very effective at protecting us from Klingons.

  5. Yes, and I don’t know anyone who’s been attacked by those tentacled, brain-shaped alien thingies lately, either. Gosh. Maybe I’d better rethink this whole Worst Preznit Ever thing.

    On second thought, no.

  7. Anthrax. Why hasn’t Bush captured, or even managed to identify, any of the terrorists who’ve been mailing anthrax or fake anthrax around to … well, mostly to people who don’t support Bush.

    Guess I answered my own question there.

  8. Speaking of jokes, what do ya call a bus load of PNAC’ers running off a cliff?
    Answer: a wonderful start!
    Actually , I’d rather see Kristol taking a taxi ride through Baghdad over and over ’til he gets the full Iraq experience. What a rotten little panty waist…..

  9. Kristol: “Bush was right about the fact that with aggressive tactics on our part we wouldn’t be attacked …”

    later, after Kristol mentions attacks in Africa during Clinton’s presidency …

    Jon: “If you’re gonna add in attacks in Africa, we gotta go Spain, we gotta go England … and then we gotta say well they actually have attacked us quite frequently since uh …”

    Kristol: “Yeah, we’re in a global war.”

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