When is a joke not a joke ...?

Hey, did you hear the one about why Dick Cheney couldn't make it to the White House Correspondents' dinner?  Seems he was home working on his memoir:  "How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People."

But seriously folks ...

Normally, we'd get a rim shot after a one-liner like that, but I'm pretty sure there's an amendment someplace in the Constitution that says, you don't do rim shots when the guy telling the jokes is President of the United States.

In case you weren't one of the 3,000 journalists, pols and celebs invited to the dinner, and also missed it on TV and the Web, here are a couple of other funnies delivered by the president.

About his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel:  "This is a tough holiday for Rahm. He's not used to saying the word 'day' after 'mother.' "

And there was the one about GOP Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who was in the audience.

"Michael for the last time, the Republican Party does not qualify for a bailout. Rush Limbaugh does not count as a troubled asset, I'm sorry."

Shecky Obama even took a pot shot at himself, and his well-honed Messiah-like image.  My "next hundred days will be so successful that I will be able to complete them in 72 days.  And on my 73rd day, I will rest."

Tell me when you stop laughing.

But my favorite was the one about the media.  "Most of you covered me," Obama said, "all of you voted for me."

The audience howled.  And applauded.  The best humor, they say, always has a ring of truth to it.  This one had a lot more than a mere ring.  Every journalist in the house knew what he was saying.  And guess what?  They didn't care!

Can you say Slobbering Love Affair?

Okay, be good to your waiters and waitresses because they've been good to you.  And drive home carefully.

Oh yeah, I forgot, you didn't go.