During a debate full of political mumbo jumbo Thursday night, one candidate stood out because of a one-liner directed at President Obama.
Republican Gary Johnson, the former Governor of New Mexico, was unanimously awarded the title of “line of the night” by many observers because of a joke about dog poop and jobs.
Confused?
Here it is: “My next door neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel ready jobs than this president,” he zinged, as the audience burst into laughter and applause.
Johnson—whose eyes seemed to look down as he was telling the joke, leading some to believe that it was choreographed—laughed at his own joke, as other Republicans giggled alongside him. Mitt Romney in particular seemed rather amused by the joke.
Apparently done with his stand up act, Johnson simply said: “Balance the federal budget now: Not 15 years from now, not 20 years from now, but now.”
After the jokes were done and the debate was over, Johnson’s zinger was still heating up the Internet.
But some have questioned if his dog poop analogy was actually original material. It has been reported that conservative radio personality, Rush Limbaugh, delivered a similar line on his talk show.
“My dogs have created more shovel-ready work than Obama has (chuckling) just this week alone,” said Rush, according to a transcript on his website. “The new puppy. Honest to God. More shovel-ready work for me this week than Obama has created all two and a half years.”
And that’s not the end of it.
According to the Huffington Post, Johnson told a reporter that a former “Tonight Show” writer sent him a bunch of jokes, and he singled out that line because it “was really funny.”
We can only hope that future debates create such amusing moments.
