The audience began laughing the second George W. Bush appeared on the movie screen that provided the backdrop for Politickled, a one-hour discussion about politics and humor at the Helen Mills theater last night, and the laughter only grew stronger.

Hosted by Andy Borowitz (right), the chief political humor writer for the New Yorker magazine, and featuring Scott Dikkers (editor-in-chief of the Onion), David Rees (author of Get Your War On), and Robert Lanham (the Hipster Handbook, Free Williamsburg, and the Sinner's Guide to the Evangeligal Right), the panel could have easily devlolved into a vicious match of "let's see who's funnier."

Fortunately, these guys are professionals. Their discussion wasn't a practiced routine but an open, freestyle bantering of observations -- often straightly played -- of our political system and its leaders. Laughter was just a happy side-effect, and a telling commentary on pretty much everything that's going on in this country now.

Well, not everything. The panelists did agree that not all things are funny. The fact that John McCain can't move his arms above his head isn't funny because it's a result of his time as a prisoner-of-war. But the fact that his arms are so short -- now that's comedy.

"The party's almost over," said Borowitz, referring to the imminent end of, quite frankly, a real joke of an administration. Dikkers agreed that the Bush years have provided fertile ground for political satirists, but then again, maybe it's been too easy. "It's like shooting fish in a barrel," he said. "It's more of a challenge to be funny in times in peace and prosperity."

That doesn't mean that Obama's off the hook, though, even though it was plainly evidident that each of the four panelists support the presumptive Democratic nominee. Obama's "staring into the future pose" has already been tapped by the Onion, which also pointed out a few months back that, if elected, Obama will be a "black man asking for change in the White House."

Robert Lanham noted that "If Obama is our next president, the conservative commentators are going to be losing it, and they'll be that much easier to make fun of."

And let's not forget that whether Democrat or Republican, black or white, rich or poor, we'll never stop being human. And for the satirist, that's a consoling thought.

"We're always going to be really stupid," Dikkers said. "Human folly will always be something you can count on."