“People need to understand that good government is just not funny. If we want to make people laugh at politics and visit our political blogs and view our political cartoons, then we need PR cock ups, uncomfortable moments with foreign dignitaries, poor legislation and badly mangled sound bites …in effect we need the President to fail.”

Several of the assembled political satirists fainted when a journalist pointed out that their interests were now completely aligned with those of Rush Limbaugh.

 Number 5: Honest Abe and The Drunken Vice-Presidential Speech Slurfest

 In 1865, Abraham Lincoln’s Vice-President Andrew Johnson decided that the best way to recover from a bout of Typhoid was to drink. Unfortunately, he chose to partake of his cure in copious amounts on the day he was due to deliver a speech at the inauguration ceremony. The result: a speech slurred so badly that it was incoherent. The question remains as to whether an incoherent political speech is any less interesting than your average coherent one.

Welcome to the Presidency, sorry your veep is a lush...

Number 4: Andrew Jackson’s Open House

 In a symbolic attempt to show that the White House belonged to the people, President Andrew Jackson opened up the house to the public after his swearing-in in 1829. It may have seemed that most of America received the invite, as what ensued was a White House so crowded that some visitors stood on fine furniture to make space while servants spilled punch on the floor after collisions  with the throng of inauguration revellers.

The President himself was whisked away as his keepers deemed the situation to be too unruly. The messy party was moved outside by the ingenious placement of tubs of whiskey punch on the front lawn.

The origins of the modern day guest list

 Number 3 : William Henry Harrison And The Inaugural Speech That Killed

 A minimum requirement to be President of the United States should be listening to your mother and dressing for the weather. Another requirement should be a cap on speech length. In 1841, a 68 year old William Henry Harrison broke Apoliticus’ rules and delivered a two hour, 8400 word inauguration speech (the longest in US history), in an ice storm, without a hat. He got pneumonia. He died a month later. Listen to Apoliticus.

Presidential tip: talk less, dress warm

 Number 2: Nixon And The Counterinauguration

 You know that a politician has some pretty devoted enemies when protesters organize a three day counter-inauguration that includes a parade with reviewing stands and a counter-inaugural ball. The 1969 inauguration of Richard Nixon saw a few firsts, including the first interruption of an inaugural parade by protesters hurling smoke bombs and stones at the President’s limo.

So how do I get tickets to the other party?

Number 1: George W. Bush Egged On

The controversial election of 2000 made for a toxic environment at the inaugural ceremony of George W Bush. While most Presidents have historically been able to walk most of the parade route, Bush chose to remain within his limo until he was just a block away from the White House. Though the hostile crowds were for the most part subdued by police, the new President was badly heckled by protesters and an egg was thrown at the Presidential limo.

In another first, several ingenious protesters skirted rules against attendees carrying placards by writing the protest messages “Hail To The Thief” and “No Mandate” on their bodies and streaking around the event, making this the first “inauguration protest streak” in recorded history.

Number 8: About.com

About.com is the central repository for political humor on the web. Though the site layout is about as exciting as watching paint dry… the content itself is solid. From political top 10’s like “Top 10 Bushisms of 2008″, to summaries of the best political humor on the web and TV, to the funny “real” political moments, About.com’s section on political humor has it all. Blogger Daniel Kurtzman does a good job putting some order to the chaos and collecting the best political humor on the web.

Number 7: Barely Political

One of the biggest viral sensations on the internet during the run up to the 2008 Presidential Election was ” Obama Girl” …an uber hot actress/model/singer  named Amber Lee Ettinger who professed her love for the candidate through song. Her videos, along with a large library of other funny politically oriented stuff have been viewed on Barely Political over 125 million times.

Number 6: Scrappleface

Scrappleface is a conservative political satire site that was started in 2002 by  ex-journalist Scott Ott. The site gained some notoriety after a post on Donald Rumsfeld’s comment about Germany and France being an “Axis of Weasels” went viral in 2003. The style of this blog is mock news pieces, put together with a little more love and attention than most bloggers devote to a typical entry.

Number 5: Bartcop

A granddaddy of political blogs on the internet (established in 1996), Bartcop is less of a straight up humor site, more of a compilation of funny and thought provoking political content from around the web.  The layout might get you clicking on text that you think should be hyperlinked, but all you need to know is that the homepage has everything you need to read the current issue. Remember to keep a bottle of Tequila handy as Bart often commands his readers to take a shot when an item is shotworthy. Remember to surf responsibly.

Number 4: Youtube

Youtube doesn’t require much explanation, it is the resource for online user generated video. What is notable is how many people accessed Youtube for humorous clips related to the 2008 presidential campaign. According to Integrated Media Measurement (IMMI), twice as many people saw Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin sketches online as watched it on television, and many of these views were from good ole Youtube.

Number 3: Colbert Nation

Colbert Nation is the online accompaniment to the famous Colbert Report, a spin off of The Daily Show hosted by Stephen Colbert. The show is comedy’s answer to personality driven pundit shows, taking aim specifically at Fox’s “O’Reilly Factor”. Colbert’s character is a right wing self aggrandizing, ill-informed, well intentioned, status-driven numbskull, prone to not letting facts get in the way of a good diatribe, particularly if a story has some “truthiness” to it (the quality by which one purports to know something emotionally or instinctively, without regard to evidence or intellectual examination).

Number 2: Satirical Political

Satirical Political is a left of center blog written by NY attorney Don Davis. SP entries are  usually pretty simple consisting of an image and a patently false, but extremely funny headline and caption.  Davis posts often, making his entries timely and an interesting interpretation of the political news of the day.

Number 1: 23/6 (Now on  The Huffington Post)

According to their motto, 23/6 delivers “some of the news, most of the time”. An animated version of the popular political cartoon “Get Your War On”, a feature on the political figures within the ever popular “Dickipedia” and a variety of humorous blogs and features based on current events (example:”We Can’t Quit W. Countdown – 50 Reasons We’re Sorry to See President Bush Go”) put 23/6 at the top of our list.