The Eight Funniest Members of Congress

At the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday, le tout Washington will pretend it is two things it’s rarely accused of being: glamorous and funny. It will rely on such Hollywood stars as Charlize Theron and George Clooney for the glamour, and on speechwriters (and host Jimmy Kimmel) for the funny. But when the clock hits midnight, the Capitol will turn back into one fat, unfunny pumpkin.

There are, however, a handful of outliers—members of Congress who don’t merely know how to deliver a joke (as Barack Obama has arguably done better than any president in memory) but also how to craft one on the spur of the moment. We’ve assembled the admittedly short list below. To analyze the comedy stylings of these Beltway yuksters, we called on Jeff Nussbaum of West Wing Writers, who is rumored to have written humor for everyone from Leon Panetta to Hillary Clinton.