You may have heard about McCain’s recent joke about American cigarettes killing Iranian citizens. Specifically, a reporter asked McCain about the U.S. exporting cigarettes to Iran. McCain quipped, “Maybe that’s a way of killing them,” and then quickly explained that he was joking, adding that he is an ex-smoker himself. Within hours, the blogosphere was all over it. Even the government of Iran put in its two cents.

This isn’t the first time McCain’s particular brand of humor has gotten him into hot water. Last year, he made headlines (in the papers and on the blogs) after publicly singing a parody version of the Beach Boys’ classic hit “Barbara Ann.” McCain replaced the familiar refrain “Bar-bar-bar, bar-barbara Ann” with “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." (Video clip is here.)

As a political writer and blogger during the day and a member of Street Team ’08 at night and on weekends, I devote a lot of time to thinking about politics. But as a stand-up comic, I found myself asking a somewhat surprising question: were McCain’s jokes funny? And if not, why not? And why do we, as Americans, have such an appetite for political humor—and such a disdain for candidates whose humor falls flat?

I decided to consult two New York fellows who make a living writing funny things about politics. Author Dennis DiClaudio is the news editor for Comedy Central’s Indecision 2008 blog. Stand-up comedian Lee Camp edits 23/6, the Huffington Post’s humor site. These men spend most of their working hours thinking about how to make politics more humorous, and humor more political. I figured they’d have a lot to say about this subject, and they didn’t let me down.

First, I asked them if McCain’s cigarette joke was actually funny.

“Well, no,” DiClaudio replied. “Not really. But it's also not terribly unfunny, either. It's a matter of context, I think. I mean, if a friend of yours said that, would you laugh? Probably not. But if your uncle said it—compared to his other much more corny uncle jokes—you might give him a consolatory laugh.”

He added, “The thing, though, that John McCain can genuinely be funny from time to time. If you've seen him on The Daily Show or SNL, you've seen that he's actually kind of charming and has a decent sense of comic timing. So, by general John McCain standards, no, it's not funny.”

DiClaudio continued, “If Barack Obama made the exact same joke, the liberal blogosphere, with a few exceptions, would be falling all over itself trying justify it as a hilarious joke. We're in the meat of election time now, and anyone who's picked a side is gonna be brandishing a weapon to wield against their enemies.”

Lee Camp recalled jokes by other presidential contenders. “Until he destroyed the planet, [Americans] seemed to love Bush's stupid jokes. And his jokes got him out of jams. When he was originally asked to name his biggest mistake, he said, ‘Trading Sammy Sosa when I owned a baseball team.’ Everyone laughed and he got out of the question…Ronald Reagan arguably won an election with a joke. He was being criticized for being too old. And at a debate they asked whether he cared that age was an issue. And he said, "No, I have no intention of making my opponent’s youth and inexperience an issue.’ Everyone went nuts and it got played throughout the election and completely took the weight out of that criticism."

Camp added, “The reason Reagan's joke is funnier than McCain's is because Reagan was defending himself from a lowly position - old and frail. McCain was not defending himself but rather talking about how to kill people who are in a lowly position.”

DiClaudio agreed that being funny in a non-offensive way can help a candidate get elected. He said that President Bush “got into office, in many ways, because of his personality. . . He, like Mike Huckabee, seems like the kind of guy I’d enjoy drinking a beer with at a barbeque. But you know what? I drink beer with a lot of people at a lot of barbeques, and I have yet to meet any of them who I’d like to run my country.”

DiClaudio said, “When I read about politics, I get a . . . knot in my stomach; I feel sick. But then when I watch Jon Stewart’s take on things, I feel strangely better. Political humor is our attempt to fool ourselves into thinking that this is just a big burlesque and that the politicians are clowns flopping around for our amusement. When, in reality, the politicians are playing with our lives, deciding our rights, telling us who we're allowed to marry . . . It's scary stuff. It's much nicer to imagine them as clowns.”

UPDATE: Well, a-looky here! Seems like me and HuffPo's Bob Cesca had the same idea today. I guess it's unofficially Analyze McCain's Comedic Talents Day. Read Bob's opinion piece here.