Tuesday, October 31, 2006

McKinley hollered, McKinley squawled

William McKinley just went up in my estimation: he named his parrot "Washington Post."

(Here are the full lyrics for the song linked to above.)

posted by goyishekop at 3:33 PM

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This joke was going around in 1996, when the W.C. stood for re-election.

Bill Clinton was instructing a class of third graders. He asked them "Can somebody give me an example of a tragedy?"

"I know! I know!" said little Billy. "If two kids were playing ball on the sidewalk, and the ball rolled into the street, and one of them ran after it and was hit by a car, that would be a tragedy."

"No, I'm sorry, Billy" the president intoned. "That would not be a tragedy -- that would be an accident."

"I know! I know!" exclaimed little Susie. "If a school bus full of kids ran over a cliff and everybody died, that would be a tragedy."

"That's not quite right, Susie" said Bill. "That would be a great loss."

Little Johnnie spoke up. "If you and Hillary were flying on Air Force One, and somebody snuck a bomb on board, and blew it up, killing you and the first lady, wouldn't that be a tragedy?"

"Yes. That would indeed be a tragedy, Johnnie. Can you explain why?"

"Well," said Johnnie, "It wouldn't be an accident, and it sure as hell wouldn't be any great loss!"

--------------------------------

I thought this joke was pretty funny the first time I heard it. Some years later I was digging around in some history books, where I learned that the original version of this political joke had Mark Hanna and Wm. McKinley on a steamboat when the boiler blew up.

I think it's fascinating how the same old political jokes get recirculated. The players change, but the game remains the same.

5:54 AM  

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