Comedy Night on the Campaign Trail

Last night was Stu Bykofsky's 16th Annual Comedy Night. I wasn't there but read about it in today's Daily News ("Pols Yuk It Up To Help Children," By Will Bunch). Here's an excerpt:

Bob Casey, state treasurer and Democratic candidate for senator, got a laugh when he brought up someone even stiffer: A cardboard cutout of himself.

He said he had to look it up when someone called him "stultifying," and he said he learned it means "so boring that you kill people as you speak."

But his GOP opponent, Sen. Rick Santorum - the butt, if you catch our drift, of a couple of jokes we can't easily repeat here - also poked gentle fun at his own conservative image, and at the controversial book he wrote last year.

That tome was called "It Takes a Family," but he said aides told him his next book ought to be called "It Takes a Village Idiot."

The annual event, hosted by Daily News columnist Bykofsky since 1991, raises money for Variety-the Children's Charity.

I did watch a short report on tv news last night. The broadcast showed Casey comparing himself to the cardboard cutout. It also showed Santorum saying that his wife had written and sold more books than he and that after a year of intensive therapy he was over it now. At the risk of sounding stereotypically humorless, let me say I don't find that funny. In a third of married households the wife earns more than the husband. If he needs therapy to get over having legally earned money finding its way into the family bank accounts, he can suggest they give it away, to Philadelphians Against Santorum maybe.

A reader (h/t John) sent me a comment make by Patrick Murphy, confirmed by his campaign:

He was talking about a solution in the middle east and said Hezbollah should return prisoners to Israel and that Israel would return Mel Gibson to Hezbollah!

A Smoke-Filled Room was there and described it as:

Last night saw one of the city's big political events, a charity comedy line-up featuring many of the top players from the region and the state. Will Bunch gives a few highlights for the Daily News (which sponsors the event, with columnist Stu Bykofsky as host). I happened to be there, and it was quite a scene (or be-seen), with Big Dogs like Fattah and Santorum mixing with Little Mutts like Raj Bhakta (primarily of reality TV fame, but running against Allyson Schwartz) and Michael Gessner (who's biggest laugh line came when he explained "the Republicans were looking for somebody to run against Chaka Fattah...") and various minions and kissers-up. The confident and the terrified offered up everything from guy-walks-into-a-bar jokes to real political zingers (Santorum and Tom Ferrick got the lion's share of abuse) and occasional self-deprecating humor. An interesting way to get a very superficial impression of a lot of players at once (and all for a good cause).